The COLORED GIRL 
BEAUTIFUL 



— Hockley 



■ ■'■'i 



m 



■■■■- :■: 







HE 





(toss IB X 1 6 % I 

Book H 3 

(kpightN? 



COPYRIGHT DEPOSIT. 



i 

The Colored Girl Beautiful 



THE 

COLORED GIRL 

BEAUTIFUL 



By 
E. AZALIA HACKLEY 

Author of "A Guide in Voice Culture" and 
"Public School Lessons in Voice Culture." 



BURTON PUBLISHING COMPANY 

PUBLISHERS 

KANSAS CITY, MISSOURI 









Copyrighted 1916 
By E. Azalia Hackley 



OCT -3 1918 
©CI.A503853 



/V\» 



1 



Dedication. 

To colored women in whom I have 
faith and to colored children whom I 
love, I send this little message. 



Foreword. 

This volume has been compiled from 
talks given to girls in colored boarding- 
schools. The first talk was given at the 
Tuskegee Institute at the request of the 
Dean of the Girls' Department. 

It was an impromptu talk after an 
hour's notice. Just before the Dean 
closed the door to leave me alone with 
the girls, I repeated my question, 
"What shall I talk about?" The reply 
was, "Tell them anything you think 
they should know. They will believe 
an experienced woman like you who 
travels and knows the world and life." 

As I looked at the sea of faces, "want- 
ing to know," and as I thought of all 
they had to learn, the vastness of all of 

9 



10 THE COLORED GIRL BEAUTIFUL 

it almost overpowered me. "May I sit 
clown, girls? Now, what shall we talk 
about that is interesting" to every one of 

you?" 

"Would you like to talk about Love 
— real Love?" "Yes, yes," came the an- 
swer. "Would you like to talk about 
Beauty— real Beauty?" "Yes! Yes!" 
they answered and the chairs were 
pulled forward. For forty minutes we 
had a heart to heart talk. The dean and 
teachers had perhaps told the girls the 
same words, but the message seemed to 
come more directly to them from one 
who had daily contact with the great, 
busy world. 

The talks were very informal and 
personal and as the girls asked ques- 
tions the thought came to me to jot 
down the points, that similar talks 
might be given to the girls in other 
schools. Then came the request, "You 
come so seldom, can you print the 
talks?" Much of the talks could not be 



THE COLORED GIRL BEAUTIFUL 11 

printed because many of the questions 
and answers were personal. 

If I had a daughter I would desire 
that she should know these things and 
more, that she might be a beacon light 
to her home and to the race. As I have 
not been blessed with a daughter, I send 
these thoughts to the daughters of other 
colored women, hoping that among 
them there is some new thought worthy 
of a racial "Amen.' 

E. AZALIA HACKLEY, 

Chicago, 111., August, 1916. 



CONTENTS 

The Future Page 17 

The Colored Child Beautiful 23 

The Colored Girl Beautiful 41 

Laws Of Attraction — Vibrations 55 

Love 61 

Personal Appearance 71 

Deep Breathing 79 

Originality 85 

Youth And Maturity 97 

Self Control 101 

Her Relationship With Men 109 
The Religion Of The Colored Girl Beautiful 117 
The School Of The Colored Girl Beautiful 133 
The Home Of The Colored Girl Beautiful 143 

The Colored Working Girl Beautiful 151 

The Colored Woman Beautiful 161 

The Colored Wife Beautiful 169 

The Colored Mother Beautiful 181 
13 



The Future. 



The beautiful part about the colored 
race in America, is the future. As a 
mixed race we are undeveloped. We 
may become whatever we WILL to be- 
come. 

This race is a growing people. The 
future is veiled but it may reveal some 
strange things to the world. What op- 
portunities there are for leadership ! If 
there were only some ways to "squelch" 
the fakers and arouse the dreamers ! 

If each would only think out a differ- 
ent plan for race advancement, there 
would always be followers. Some would 
be attracted in one way and others 
reached in another way, and so carry 
lines of thought. 

The gardener is aiming towards bet- 

17 



18 THE COLORED GIRL BEAUTIFUL 

ter vegetation. Scrubs and dwarfs are 
sacrificed totally to produce a more per- 
fect plant. 

The horse breeder, any animal breed- 
er, the bird fancier, all aim to get a bet- 
ter breed of stock in each generation. 

The cry of the hour is "A better breed 
of babies." As it takes several genera- 
tions to breed a prize winner, it is time 
for the colored race to look into these 
things and prepare for the future col- 
ored child, handicapped as it will be. 
Nature needs assistance in this. 

Attractiveness in appearance is a 
strong factor in success. A pleasing, 
even, charming personal appearance 
may be cultivated. 

The mind — the gray matter — either 
fills the body with life or beauty, or it 
destroys life and beauty, according to 
the concentration of thought, and re- 
sulting habits. 

If one were to ask, "Can a leopard 
change its spots," the reply must always 



THE COLORED GIRL BEAUTIFUL 19 

be, "No." But if one were to ask if the 
Negro could change his appearance, 
through himself, his own will power, 
the answer would be, "Yes," because 
the Negro has a thinking brain. He 
may become as attractive as he wills to 
become. , 

As his taste and ideas of beauty con- 
form to the accepted, so will he grow 
like these ideals and standards. 



The Colored Child Beautiful. 



Every baby is beautiful to its mother. 
Every colored baby is generally, only 
cunning or cute to many of the white 
race who have their own ideal of baby 
beauty, which depends mainly upon a 
white skin. 

Beauty is a matter of personal opin- 
ion. To a savage African, a baby with 
a black skin and flat nose is the ideal. 

To a Chinese, a plump, yellow, slant 
eyed baby satisfies. 

To the Esquimaux, the round faced, 
small eyed, black haired little one is the 
admired type. 

A child should be taught to love and 
be proud of its race and to know the 
good points of the race. 

Colored babies are born with rare 



24 THE COLORED GIRL BEAUTIFUL 

physical gifts. First: They are born 
with the most beautiful eyes in the 
world. Unlike foreign children who 
come to this country, they seldom have 
sore eyes. I have visited about six hun- 
dred colored schools and have yet to see 
a sore eyed colored child. 

The obligation of a gift is the preser- 
vation and cultivation of this gift. 
Little colored children should be taught 
to keep their eyes open and bright with 
intelligence and clear with good health, 
because the eyes are the windows of the 
soul. Their eyes should look straight 
into the eyes of others with their souls 
shining through. Their eyes must be 
kind eyes, listening eyes, observant 
eyes, thoughtful eyes, and remembering 
eyes. 

Second: Colored people are credited 
with having the finest teeth in the 
world. The obligation of this gift is 
cleanliness and preservation of this at- 
tractive gift. A colored child should be 



THE COLORED GIRL BEAUTIFUL 25 

taught to deny herself to pay a den- 
tist's bill. 

Third: Colored people have the 
finest voices in the world. The obliga- 
tion of this gift is its cultivation, proper 
care and control of the voice, and to 
speak in good English. 

There are other natural gifts but of 
them — later on. The greatest gift to 
the Negro is himself. So much in him 
is hidden, spiritually, intellectually, 
pyschically and physically, that he is a 
vast unexplored mine. 

All colored babies like all little white 
babies, excepting in the shades of color, 
are born about alike, with round or long 
heads, all with the same soft spot on the 
crown, and like white babies, are mostly 
all mouth because they are hungry little 
animals and use their mouths often. 

As the child observes, thinks, and 
"wills," the bumps and hollows appear, 
the features develop and lines grow. 
Any ugly little baby may develop into 



26 THE COLORED GIRL BEAUTIFUL 

a beautiful child. Any beautiful child 
may grow ugly and coarse. 

If babies were born with developed 
features they would be monstrosities. 

"Within each of them is an inward 
sculptor, Thought, who is a rapid, true 
workman." 

Colored children should be taught 
that Thought will improve their good 
points and will eradicate any objection- 
able points. They should be taught 
their good points and their bad points, 
and should be encouraged to improve 
their personal appearance, as far as 
objectionable racial characteristics are 
concerned. 

As the girl grows she should be 
taught the value of personal appearance 
as a factor in her life problem and ulti- 
mate success. 

A little colored girl who wants to be 
pretty should be taught what "pretty" 
really is. The old proverb says, "Pretty 
is as pretty does," thus recognizing the 



THE COLORED GIRL BEAUTIFUL 27 

power of the inward Sculptor Thought, 
and its controlling and cultivating 
force -. 

At an early age the child should be 
given subjects to think about. She 
should be taught to see the beautiful in 
Nature and Art that the reflection may 
be seen in her face and in her actions. 
Ask her if she saw the sun rise this 
morning or the sun set last night, or if 
she noticed the moon light, or the gran- 
deur of the low black clouds, or the 
fleeciness of the soft white clouds; tell 
her to listen to the language of the birds 
and insects, and the sighing of the 
winds through the trees. Tell her to 
listen to the teeming of the earth and 
ask where and when the earth smells 
the sweetest. Teach her to w r alk and 
talk with Mother Nature and to recog- 
nize her voice in everything, until Na- 
ture will appear more, mean more, and 
teach more. Companionship with flow- 
ers and the cultivation of plants is to be 



28 THE COLORED GIRL BEAUTIFUL 

recommended, even in the most con- 
gested flat life. 

The colored child should be taught 
Negro History that she may be proud 
of her dark skin. It is a long interest- 
ing story way back to the days of 
Ethiopian glory, for the Negro is the 
sub-strata of that race. Tell the child 
how fair races from the North invaded 
Africa, and until today the present col- 
ored race can trace its black blood back 
to African kings and queens, and its 
white blood to the kings and queens of 
the Old World.* 

Let her know that the black man was 
the author of much of the world's his- 
tory, and that Moro, the capital of 
Ethiopia, was at one time the great seat 
of learning. She should be taught early 
in life to read Ancient History, that she 

♦NOTE. The Bible and other books tell us that 
the Ethiopians were a prominent people before the 
time of Christ. 

Recently in excavations pictures of Egyptian princes 
reigning- 2900-2750 B. C. prove from their hair that 
they had Negro blood. America will have these proofs 
in the Boston Museum of Fine Arts. 



THE COLORED GIRL BEAUTIFUL 29 

may see what the black man has done 
for the world, that she -may have pride in 
her black blood as well as in her white 
blood. Tell her the record of the Negro 
as a soldier, statesman, and explorer. 
Read to her about the brave part that 
he played in the war of 1812 and subse- 
quent wars, even in the recent terrible 
war, he was among the bravest. Help 
her to make a scrap book that she may 
pass her knowledge on to others. While 
authorities in history say that a race 
once great, can never attain greatness 
again, as truly as the pendulum swings 
this mixed race will surely come into its 
own. The colored race comes from sev- 
eral lines of white ancestry, and as fruit 
is grafted to a finer degree of species, 
so the colored race will some day show 
its latent powers. The child of today is 
to be the mother of the great child that 
is to be, and each one must do her part 
to help prepare for the future great col- 
ored child. 



30 THE COLORED GIRL BEAUTIFUL 

Teach the colored girl about prej- 
udice. Parents should read up the 
World's history of persecution and note 
the accounts of race and religious per- 
secution in England, France, Germany, 
Russia, Turkey and Spain. Even today 
there is English hatred of the East In- 
dian, Russian persecution of the Jew, 
and Turkish persecution of the Armen- 
ians. Then , too, Europeans are only 
just beginning to regard the Oriental 
nations as human beings. Prejudice is 
hard to explain and hard to conquer. It 
has taken generations in other instances 
and the world has always kicked the 
under dog. Tell the colored child how 
these other persecuted nations are con- 
quering prejudice; tell her that each col- 
ored child must be a race missionary 
and prove her worth and powers, thus 
winning friends for the race. 

She must be taught the application of 
the story of Esther to her race. Tell her 
that each colored girl may be an Esther, 



THE COLORED GIRL BEAUTIFUL 31 

especially in all matters of cleanliness, 
manners, and self sacrifice, to advance 
and change the prevalent opinion of the 
Negro. Each colored woman, not onlv 
bears her own burden, but she bears the 
burden of posterity and the burden of 
the race. Each one roust fit herself for 
the triple burden. N<ot even a talent 
should be used wholly for personal gain 
nor solely for present uses. Her educa- 
tion must be a process of development 
of powers not only to fit her for citizen- 
ship and life, but it must fit her for her 
race's burdens. 

Some one has said: 

"To educate a boy is but the educa- 
tion of an individual — but when one 
educates a girl, the education of a family 
results." 

Every little colored girl, like every 
little white girl, wants to be beautiful. 
What is beauty? Beauty is a combina- 
tion of personal appearance and charm, 
and it can not be purchased. 



32 THE COLORED GIRL BEAUTIFUL 

Each year the merchant takes stock 
and separates all the best articles, the 
medium articles, and the poor articles. 

And so when one determines upon 
self improvement, she should take stock. 
She sums up her good points and her 
bad points. The good points she will 
accentuate and the bad points she will 
eradicate, unless Thought, the inward 
Sculptor has been at work too long. It 
is for this reason that little colored chil- 
dren should be taught early in life to 
think rightly. 

"As the sprig is bent, so will the tree 
be." 

Every thought, every emotion has an 
outward manifestation. Because people 
think, feel, and act, they leave marks of 
these in bodily lines and habits. Not 
only is the face a bulletin board, but as 
Schopenhauer says, "One's life may be 
his autobiography." One's life may 
even be read from his skeleton. 

Sometimes certain thoughts and 



THE COLORED GIRL BEAUTIFUL 33 



habits repeated and repeated leave 
spot^. Spots always depreciate whether 
on w< ol, meat, wood, animals or people. 
Has the Negro any "Spots"? Other 
people think so. If these so-called 
"spots" will interfere with his future 
success in life then let him eradicate 
them with the inward Sculptor — 
Thought. 

Is the dark skin a spot? Oh no, it is 
his history, his strength, as was Sam- 
son's hair. Because of his color he has 
powers and forces which could get 
him anything he desires in life if he 
would only begin while a child, to 
learn restraint, how to govern and con- 
trol himself until he could accumulate 
sufficient will power to direct these 
forces for his own advancement. 

Because of his color he has rare 
psychic powers which are not yet un- 
derstood by himself or by the world. 

What is the largest Spot? If one 
wishes to get a true estimate of him- 



34 THE COLORED GIRL BEAUTIFUL 

self he finds out what others ridicule 
concerning him. 

What feature about the Negro is ridi- 
culed the most? Why, the mouth. 
"What is the matter with it? A large 
mouth is supposed to be the sign of 
generosity. No, but if it has thick 
lips and is a leaking mouth? If it hangs 
open too much ? Only two classes of 
persons are excused from having open 
mouths, and these are children with 
adenoids and imbeciles. Every one 
else is supposed to keep his mouth shut 
most of the time. 

The leaking mouth with the hanging 
under jaw causes a tendency to "leak" 
along other lines. One's business and 
personal affairs "leak" in street cars, 
public places, and on the streets to the 
detriment of the race. 

Permitting the lips to hang, thickens 
them. They grow too heavy to hold 
up. Too much grinning and loud 
laughter will widen the mouth and 



THE COLORED GIRL BEAUTIFUL 35 

loosen it. We do not desire small 
mouths, but we do not look attractive 
with "leaking mouths.'' Our mouths 
are improving. In the schools and col- 
lege pictures we find unmistakable evi- 
dence that Thought is working wonders 
with the Negro mouth. 

What is the next most ridiculed 
"Spot''? The nose. What is the mat- 
ter with the noses? Large noses are 
said to be an indication of character 
and ability. Napoleon always selected 
the generals with large noses because 
he believed them to be more efficient. 
Oh, but the noses are often flat and 
have no hump. 

Look at the hump of the Roman 
nose which indicates "fight." Look 
at the hump of the Indian nose which 
also indicates warlike tendencies. Take 
the Jewish nose. The hump means 
fight — a continual warfare for gold. 

But the Negro has been a peaceful 
person, consequently he developed no 



i 



36 THE COLORED GIRL BEAUTIFUL 

nose hump. It is time that he de- 
veloped a hump — a Negroid hump. He 
must pinch up, think up, will up, a 
hump. The time has come to fight, 
not only for rights, but for looks as 
well. He must build up a nose with 
more character, which can not be ridi- 
culed. Grinning widens the nose and 
prevents its upward building, so grin- 
ning must cease. 

In examining the pictures of grad- 
uates from the different schools, we 
find that Thought is changing the 
noses as well as the mouths. As the 
mouth and nose are changed, so will 
the whole expression of the face be 
changed. 

The Negro's hair may be considered 
a "Spot" by some, but care and cul- 
tivation are changing this so-called 
"Spot" and more care and attention 
will work more wonderful results. * 



*NOTE, 'Kinky hair is neither a disgraceful nor a 
shameful heredity. It is an honorable legacy from 
Africa. A kind Mother Nature protected her children 



THE COLORED GIRL BEAUTIFUL 37 

His eves and his teeth are good 
points and he has been given a mag- 
nificent backbone as well as a beauti- 
ful voice, although he often permits 
these gifts to degenerate. 

Because God has given each colored 
girl a beautiful voice, she should be 
taught to speak in a soft mellow tone. 
She should speak eloquently and ele- 
gantly. If she screeches or yells and 
abuses her vocal cords, she will not 
only disgust people but she will lose 
her voice and have no beauty of tone 
to bequeath. 

As the colored child has been made 
in the image of God, her poise should 
be erect and fearless. Nature bestowed 
the gift of a straight backbone. 

The native African has always been 
straight like the pine sapling. In civ- 

from the torrid sun which kept the oils and waxes 
in a fluid state or else the hair would have dried up. 
The chemical action of the atmosphere caused a shrink- 
ing into spirals which further protected the uncovered 
heads from scorching-." 

Constant care of the hair will cause an improved 
condition of the texture which will in time be in- 
herited. 



38 THE COLORED GIRL BEAUTIFUL 

ilization his descendant permits his 
back to bend. The chest caves in, 
squeezing the heart, lungs and liver. 
One is more liable to pneumonia and 
tuberculosis, and can not fight them 
successfully as these organs have lost 
much of their vital force because of 
their cramped conditions. 

Power is expressed in the way one 
carries her shoulders, and vitality is 
measured by breathing capacity. 

One may sin against God and be for- 
given, but Mother Nature never for- 
gives the sin against her. Unto the 
third and fourth generation the pun- 
ishment goes on for the abuse of the 
temple of the Soul. 



The Colored Girl Beautiful 



Every colored girl would like to be 
beautiful. The so-called beauty is but 
skin deep. A burn, a scar, a disease, 
and beauty is fled, although contour 
and other evidences might remain. 

One can not remove bad looks with 
soap and water. Youth should be and 
is always attractive. It is after twenty- 
five that one begins to wish that she 
had been more careful in her youth, 
that she had controlled her powers, 
and that she had cultivated her good 
points and removed her "Spots. " 

A girl should study herself, learn her 
powers, and she will get the real 
beauty if she will deliberately and per- 
sistently train for it. 

We look at the photos of beautiful, 

41 



42 THE COLORED GIRL BEAUTIFUL 

smiling, round-faced children and then 
at the tired, many-lined unhappy faces 
into which they have changed. Women 
delight in showing us photos to prove 
how beautiful they were when they 
were sweet sixteen. As we look, it is 
hard to believe. However, the camera, 
they say, always tells the truth, and 
we have later evidence before us. 

The inward tools, Thoughts, have 
carved the ugly pictures on faces. Ig- 
norance is a terrible curse along all 
fines. Many have not learned the 
secret of preserving their bodies, along 
with other studies, yet the savage na- 
tions care for their bodies. 

Girls abuse their bodies; they eat 
too much or else the wrong kind of 
food, causing indigestion or other 
stomach and liver troubles. There is 
no room for the distended digestive 
organs and gorged stomachs and if 
these walls are stretched too often they 
lose their elasticity and the digestive 



THE COLORED GIRL BEAUTIFUL 43 

juices go on a strike, causing erup- 
tions on the face and a bad complex- 
ion, besides other complications which 
destroy beauty. Then, too, coarse or 
highly seasoned foods arouse other ap- 
petites through the law of sympathy. 

Girls do not heed the signs of colds 
and complications peculiar to women. 
Operations are often necessary because 
of exposure and neglect of colds. 
The clothing is often too tight and 
pressure causes malignant growth and 
great suffering in after years. 

A girl should keep her face as clean 
as a man's face after shaving, and her 
body should be correspondingly clean, 
that the gases and odors may escape, 
lest they take revenge upon her face. 
A girl should no more offer a foul 
odor of body or mouth or nose, than 
she would offer poison. 

A girl must study her body and pre- 
serve it by attending to colds and dis- 
eases in time. 



44 THE COLORED GIRL BEAUTIFUL 

One who desires beauty should fight 
against a desire for intoxicants. There 
is nothing that coarsens the skin of 
some women so quickly as the habit of 
drinking beer. Chewing gum coarsens 
the muscles of the jaw and gives a 
downward trend that few faces can 
afford to wear. 

The real beauty is carved from with- 
in and the inward Sculptor is always at 
work. One may buy artificial teeth, 
hair and limbs, but no cosmetics or 
massage will cover up the ravages of 
Thought. Every thought leaves its im- 
print and every emotion leaves its 
manifestation. 

Beauty is not always a tangible 
something. Many people are called 
beautiful when they do not even own 
attractive features. Charm and per- 
sonality throw a special light over the 
features, thus transforming them. Any 
one may cultivate charm and person- 



THE COLORED GIRL BEAUTIFUL 45 

ality if she has not been born with 
them. 

To be beautiful, one must fill her 
mind with beautiful thoughts. Impure 
thoughts, angry thoughts, unhappy 
thoughts, jealous thoughts, and cow- 
ardly thoughts will arise, but they 
must be driven away. Health suffers 
from these thoughts because they af- 
fect sleep and appetite. Lines appear 
upon the face as an index of interior 
troubles. 

One must not only be careful of 
thinking detrimental things, but she 
must be careful of what she says to 
others, and of what she writes in let- 
ters, for writing a thought intensifies 
its influence. 

Impure novels often lead girls astray 
or give them impure thoughts which 
are printed or published in their faces. 

A girl should not affect boldness. 
It "sets" the muscles in the face and 
neck. One should affect modesty and 



46 THE COLORED GIRL BEAUTIFUL 

purity even if one does not feel them, 
that they may enhance her looks. 

Rough uncouth actions and gestures 
cause ugly lines in the face. 

Not only is the face the bulletin 
board of habitual thought, but the body 
reflects thought through gestures and 
other movements. 

Repose of manner and a soft voice 
are two of the greatest charms that a 
woman may possess. Restlessness is 
not only a sign of lost control, it gives 
a false idea to passers-by. Quietude 
gives a sense of power. Control is cul- 
ture, and culture is a beauty point. 

Some one has said that in the matter 
of first impression, "appearance is half 
and the voice is the other half." "Later 
you will be able to make one forget an 
unattractive appearance, but we never 
grow accustomed to a rasping voice." 
"Nothing in the world is so humiliating 
as to be a graceful and beautiful 
woman with a bad voice." 



THE COLORED GIRL BEAUTIFUL 47 

Talkativeness is another "Spot," and 
a sign of lost control. In public places, 
especially, it is a sign of ill breeding 
and Lad taste. Good breeding should 
always keep a woman from loud talk. 
We must remove the stigma of loud- 
ness and coarseness that now rests up- 
on the race. The less a person knows, 
the bigger noise she generally makes. 
The big touring car never makes the 
noise that a motor cycle does, nor does 
a great steamer make the fuss that a 
tug boat does. The deep stream is 
silent while the little brook babbles. 

It is exceedingly vulgar to air one's 
opinions in street cars, railroad cars, or 
in any public place. A person who 
really knows anything does not parade 
his knowledge or his opinions. 

While emotional people are generally 
attractive, yet the habit of the expres- 
sion of the emotions could be turned to 
better account. 

Lost Motion and Lost Emotion are 



48 THE COLORED GIRL BEAUTIFUL 

the two great "wastes" of the race. 

One not only enhances her beauty 
but one is really a Somebody or a No- 
body according to the control she has 
over her mind and body. She must 
control her emotions as she does her 
appetite. Excessive emotion debilitates 
the system. Anger is poison to a 
woman's system. It causes a chemical 
action which upsets the stomach. The 
bite of an angry person is sometimes 
poisonous, because of this chemical 
change. A fit of anger may upset the 
whole digestive system, and may even 
cause death because blood is taken 
from the digestive system and many 
bodily functions cease. Any emotion 
causes the heart to beat faster. 

There is health as well as beauty in 
self control. Culture is self control. 
The Colored Girl Beautiful should cul- 
tivate reposefulness. A display of emo- 
tion or restlessness indicates lost con- 
trol. 



THE COLORED GIRL BEAUTIFUL 49 

There are only two classes of people 
who are excusable for disturbing large 
quantities of air in their movements. 
These are babies and lunatics, because 
neither have brain development nor 
mental control. 

The colored girl beautiful must learn 
to sit still. She must learn to be 
methodical in order to have resting 
periods. She needs a few minutes 
each day for relaxation and repose. If 
she has not learned to relax, she should 
change her occupation at different 
periods of the day. She must train 
herself not to get excited. She must 
not quarrel or argue. She must train 
herself to be temper-immune, and not 
to permit others to upset her equilib- 
rium. 

A real lady never gets visibly angry. 
Anger drives away friends who really 
help to make us beautiful by giving 
us pleasant sensations. 

One should be eternallv feminine. 



50 THE COLORED GIRL BEAUTIFUL 

One should not attempt athletics un- 
less she is sure that her physique will 
endure this. A strain may wreck one's 
health and looks. Most women are 
built like watches — one thing wrong 
upsets the whole mechanism. 

Observing the small courtesies in 
life makes one charming. Knowledge of 
the various forms of society etiquette 
has niade many women popular and 
has placed them in an enviable social 
position. Real politeness comes from 
a kind heart, from good impulses and 
it ranks as a strong beauty point be- 
cause it illumines the face. 

If one is obliged to work out for a 
living she must remember that habit 
affects looks. If one is energetic and 
happy the face will reflect the content. 
If one shirks her duty and hates her 
work, her face will reflect discontent; 
her vital organs will weigh downward 
and affect her health, and her looks will 
suffer. One must affect enthusiasm in 



THE COLORED GIRL, BEAUTIFUL 51 

her work to stimulate the vital organs. 

So the real beauty is carved from 
within and the inward Sculptor is al- 
ways at work. A girl is her own 
beauty doctor and can work out her 
own beauty destiny. She may have 
everything in life that she wills, if she 
will only guide this inner workman. 

A girl who lives in the back woods 
may make herself so choice and beauti- 
ful in the indescribable way, that her 
fame will spread miles away. She 
should bide her time, stay to herself 
until she has fully improved herself, 
mind and body, and she will reap her 
full reward. 



Law of Attraction — Vibrations. 



Every one of us has a magnet within 
which attracts others for good or evil, 
and which is attracted by good or evil. 
The old philosophers have given us 
many proverbs to bear out this truth'. 
We have the saying, "Birds of a feather 
flock together." 

The law of vibrations was studied 
centuries ago by the old wise men. 

One attracts the kind of vibrations 
that one sends out. The Bible also 
has given us many commandments and 
injunctions to protect us from our- 
selves. We are told that one must 
love if one would be loved; "to cast thy 
bread upon the waters and it shall re- 
turn to you," "as ye sow, so shall ye 
reap." 

55 



56 THE COLORED GIRL BEAUTIFUL 

Whatever is projected returns sooner 
or later. One may not even send an 
evil thought as in an anonymous let- 
ter, valentine, or register an unexpressed 
wish without making herself liable to 
self punishment. 

One's personality and thoughts, 
either good or evil, always surround 
her, "like a contagious cloud. " A 
strong personality will influence a 
weaker personality just as a magnet 
attracts. Many are influenced because 
they vibrate similarly and many are in- 
fluenced because they are attractable 
or weak. 

Revivals, riots, political agitations 
and race prejudices are all evidences 
of the power of strong projections of 
thought. Race prejudice is the result 
of the vibrations of hate and anger sent 
out by strong minds. The world is 
what one makes it by the projection of 
one's thought. The magnetic, ener- 
getic, hearty person brings things 



THE COLORED GIRL BEAUTIFUL 57 

about because he projects a stronger 
vibration of thought, will power and 
personality, whether in a hearty hand 
shake, sunny smile or display of in- 
terest. 

By helping others we help ourselves. 
We must learn to give, give, give, in 
order to receive. 

The sporting element and the under 
world recognize and fear the laws of 
vibrations. They know nothing of the 
laws but they have instinctive recogni- 
tion of some force, which returns the 
act. They give because they desire 
luck. One may always receive help 
from them because they are afraid to re- 
fuse aid. 

Washington Irving has said, "Happi- 
ness is a reflection." "Everybody's 
countenance is a mirror transmitting 
to others, its rays." If one makes a 
habit of sending out happy, loving 
thoughts, the face reflects the thought 
and gains in charm and beauty. 



58 THE COLORED GIRL BEAUTIFUL ] 

We must teach our minds to act up- 
on the minds of others. We must learn 
the laws and obey them, that we may 
send out strong thoughts of peace and 
love to counteract the overwhelming 
tide of thought against us. 



Love. 



There are many kinds of love. There 
is filial love, platonic love, the love 
leading to marriage, and the greatest 
love of all, mother love. Too many 
desecrate love by regarding it as a 
pastime, or selling all that passes for 
it, for favors, attentions and support. 

What is love? Man) 7 - definitions 
could be given but the best answer is, 
"Love is the habit of giving the best 
in us." Some one has said that "Love 
is the easiest thing to make and the 
hardest to keep." 

So much of the life force is wasted 
because people imagine they are in 
love. 

, Somehow, girls are given to "falling 
in love," first with one man, then 

61 



62 THE COLORED GIRL BEAUTIFUL 

with another. With each man there is 
the feminine desire to reciprocate in 
full measure for various courtesies. 

What is the result? 

The vital forces are willfully wasted. 

Beauty needs powerful stimulants. 
No one could expect a tree to blossom 
into a beautiful mature form if the sap 
were withdrawn. Youth is the green 
apple period. One can never tell how 
a little green apple may develop. It 
may become full blown and rosy 
cheeked, or it may become worm eaten 
and cankered. 

Girls permit boys and men to kiss 
and fondle them (as one woman has 
said, "to paw and claw them") and in 
turn they exert themselves to live up 
to what they imagine is expected of 
them, believing it to be a fair exchange 
for gifts and attention. 

When hypnotists desire to take the 
will power from their subjects they 
use their hands in strokings. 



THE COLORED GIRL BEAUTIFUL 63 

Girls should not permit young men 
to caress them, to hold their hands, or 
to stroke their bodies. It is very weak- 
ening. It causes a girl to yield to 
temptation because it induces passive- 
ness to the will of the projector. 

There is no present which a boy or 
man could give to a girl which is worth 
the tiniest atom of this precious in- 
visible life current. In after life she 
realizes her folly, but it is then too late 
to remedy it. 

Often a perfectly pure minded girl in 
her youth wastes her life forces with 
one beau after another, innocently 
imagining it to be her duty because of 
the attentions that she receives. When 
she marries the "man among men to 
her," she finds that she can not hold 
his affections because of this waste, 
and often she sees another woman get 
the love that is her due, as a wife. At 
the time of life when maturity should 
give a full blown rose of a woman, she 



64 THE COLORED GIRL BEAUTIFUL 

has dribbled out because she has been 
too ardent. She is worm eaten and 
cankered because she has devastated na- 
ture, and it is all her own fault. 

It is a debatable question whether a 
girl who has kissed many men, and has 
thus wasted her vital forces would be 
a fit candidate for Motherhood, and, on 
the other hand whether a boy or man 
who steals the life forces from our 
girls is fit to be a father. A man has 
no more right to steal this precious 
beauty stimulant from a girl than he 
has to steal her clothes. 

Every man know-s that if the girl he 
escorts around will kiss him, that she 
has kissed the one who preceded him 
and will kiss the one who follows him. 
It is no wonder that many men marry 
girls who have not seemed so pro- 
miscuous. Many a good girl has been 
passed or misunderstood. 

Colored girls should never sell their 
bodies and they should set a higher 



THE COLORED GIRL BEAUTIFUL 65 

value upon their bodies in every way. 
Especially should they be known as 
"Hands off" girls. 

No one would think of handling a rare 
flower and expect it to endure. The 
virgin soul is always likened to a 
flower. 

If a young man after a few calls 
thinks that he is entitled to a good- 
night kiss he should be speedily set 
right. 

Any emotion or feeling diffusing the 
body has an effect upon health and 
upon beauty. An organ may become 
exhausted from the rush of blood 
caused by an impure thought. 

Kissing excites passions until they 
become uncontrollable. 

A girl must cultivate her will power 
along with charm and personal mag- 
netism in order to become a beautiful 
woman. She must resist the tempta- 
tion to scatter her vital forces, so that 
when she marries she may hold all of 



66 THE COLORED GIRL BEAUTIFUL 

her powers for the man she desires to 
hold. She should patiently wait for 
her "prince" and aim to give him un- 
kissed lips, and virginity of mind as 
well as of body. It will be a tremen- 
dous satisfaction in fulfilling the defini- 
tion of Love and Motherhood, besides 
giving the real beauty. 

When boys and men desire caresses 
and kisses, a girl should send a mes- 
sage to her Solar Plexus — her reflex 
nerve — to help her to say, "No." She 
should let no present tempt her to be 
fleeced of her beauty food. 

In order to resist temptation, girls 
should be taught deep breathing, that 
the diaphragm and educated nerves 
may obey emergency orders. The 
practice of deep breathing is invaluable 
in the matter of resistance, and will 
back up the "I wont", I won't", I 
won't", "Hands off", "Hands off". A 
girl must hold her fists tightly and re- 
sist. 



THE COLORED GIRL BEAUTIFUL 67 

She must psychologize the mind with 
thoughts of resistance by practicing 
simple breathing movements, so that 
when temptation is imminent the hold- 
ing of a deep breath will be her salva- 
tion. The action of her diaphragm and 
Solar Plexus will prevent any waver- 
ing. 

To cultivate and hold vital strength, 
one must hoard every atom of vital 
strength. One may not even afford 
to write love letters in too warm a 
strain. One will not only be ashamed 
in after years when this particular 
fever has worn itself out, but one will 
then be conscious of wasted vital 
strength. 

Beauty is so dependent upon vital 
strength that every atom of vital force 
is needed and none must be wasted. 



Personal Appearance. 



Trifles show up the real character 
more than anything else, in clothes, or 
the care of the hair, teeth or finger 
nails. Personal appearance is one of 
the strongest factors in the beauty 
combination. After health, voice, and 
poise comes the value of dress as a 
beauty accessory. Dress has much to 
do with a man's classification of fem- 
inine beauty although he may not be 
dress informed. Many French women 
are considered beautiful because of 
charming dress accessories, which are 
generally immaculate and in harmony. 
A modest girl dresses modestly; a sen- 
sible person makes her clothes fit her 
person, her height, head, back view, side 
view, ankles and heels. A woman's 
dress soon tells the character of the 

71 



72 THE COLORED GIRL BEAUTIFUL 

wearer and betrays immorality. Even 
colors talk. 

With many people, finery seems to 
mean good dressing, yet their clothes 
jar, cry out, even "scream out their, un- 
fitness and unwholesomeness, and be- 
tray their dishonesty, shame and sac- 
rifice." Clothes show silliness, con- 
ceit, and selfishness more than any 
other thing, and often they shame a 
home, so a colored girl should study 
her individuality and her life position 
and dress accordingly. She should 
wear only becoming colors, and she 
might affect a certain color to her ad- 
vantage. She should "cling" to what 
is becoming rather than follow exag- 
gerated fashions. The exclusive dress- 
ers in high society study to*get simple 
lines; with them severity in line is ele- 
gance. Such clothes wear several sea- 
sons. No one minds wearing a becoming 
style a long time. Few colored women 
can afford to keep up the pace of styles. 



THE COLORED GIRL BEAUTIFUL 73 

There are women who live to dress 
no matter what the cost may be but 
they are not to be envied for this 
slavish passion. 

A man wears a good suit several 
years and looks well. Colored women 
could plan their costumes that they 
might at least last two seasons. They 
should study to make the most of what 
they have on hand. 

One good black dress still remains 
an asset to a wardrobe and most col- 
ored women look well in black especial- 
ly if it is relieved by a becoming color. 

In France only the "Boulevard'' 
women and actresses wear the exag- 
gerated styles that we see in the 
French fashion journals. 

The Colored Girl Beautiful will take 
care of her clothes. She will learn to 
press and sponge, also the use of clean- 
ing fluids, and to forbear from sitting 
carelessly on coats and other apparel. 

Work clothes should be becoming in 



74 THE COLORED GIRL BEAUTIFUL 

color and style. While one is buying 
or making she may as well select at- 
tractive models. When one is attired 
in unbecoming clothes, unconsciously 
the face reflects the thought in unbe- 
coming lines. One's voice takes on a 
coarser, unbecoming tone, and the 
poise takes on an unbecoming attitude. 
For the same reason our girls should 
not wear men's old hats or paper bags 
on their heads. 

One should aim to select something 
becoming that the face and body may 
always appear at their best. One must 
be on beauty parade ALL the time to 
get beauty lines. 

Appropriate clothes should be worn 
at all times. Pink or blue satin or silk 
dresses should not be worn on Sunday or 
at church, even if one can afford them. 
It is bad taste and sets a bad example 
to poorer girls who sometimes sell their 
honor, even their lives for these perish- 
able, inappropriate costumes. 



THE COLORED GIRL BEAUTIFUL 75 

In every mind there is a picture gal- 
lery of our friends and the people we 
meet. Sometimes the pictures that we 
carry are not the best ones. One is 
often caught unawares in soiled, unbe- 
coming garments. It is not necessary 
in this day and time to give an ugly 
picture of ourselves. 

We should be particular to give the 
best possible, most pleasing picture to 
others at all times. There should be no 
"being caught." One should be prepared 
early in the morning, any time of day, 
and all through the night. 

On the streets and as the street cars 
pass our homes, colored people should 
give the best pictures possible of them- 
selves, if they can not of the houses in 
which they live. We are a poor people 
but we can be quiet, clean, becomingly 
and fittingly dressed. We must stifle 
the desire to be conspicuous unless it 
is to be conspicuous by quietness. 



Deep Breathing. 



The Greeks are quoted as saying, "A 
healthy soul can only live in a healthy 
body." People are beginning to see 
that to a great extent, intellectual vigor 
depends upon physical vigor. 

Man is an air breathing animal. 

Air is life. One may go without 
food and water for days but not many 
minutes without air. 

Air is the most important factor in 
generating vital force and it is the best 
tonic in the world. 

A large, deep, chest indicates Health, 
Strength and Vitality. The size of the 
chest indicates the size of the lungs. 
A narrow chest indicates cramped 
lungs, heart, digestive organs and a 
small diaphragm. 

79 



80 THE COLORED GIRL BEAUTIFUL 

The diaphragm is the dome shaped 
breathing muscle which serves as a par- 
tition between the chest and abdominal 
organs. Its contraction causes develop- 
ment of the lungs and heart and at the 
same time the internal massage of the 
abdominal organs. 

The lungs have been called the scav- 
engers of the body for they take off 
poison which would kill us. 

As the blood stores oxygen especial- 
ly at night, windows should be kept 
open to prepare the body for the next 
day's duties. 

"Exercise is the elixir of youth. " 

Many people do not exert themselves 
enough to open the millions of little 
lung cells. Mother Nature demands a 
heavy price for this neglect of her laws. 

The heart is now recognized as a 
muscle which needs muscular exercise 
as other muscles need exercise. 

The heart is very wonderful. Al- 
though it weighs only about eleven 



THE COLORED GIRL BEAUTIFUL 81 

ounces it has each day a lifting 
strength of 120 tons to the height of a 
foot. With seventy beats of a pulse 
a minute, six ounces of blood are 
forced into arteries seventy times a 
minute or 187% gallons every hour. 
This could fill a lake or pond in a life 
time. 

Deep breathing is the fundamental 
foundation of Physical Culture, of 
Singing and of Oratory. This is why 
these studies are recommended to les- 
sen the susceptibility to disease es- 
pecially tuberculosis and other lung 
diseases. 

Deep breathing cures nervousness 
and many chronic complaints because 
it improves the circulation of the blood 
and causes internal massage especially 
of the abdominal organs. 

Deep breathers are seldom mentally 
weak because deep breathing develops 
Will power. Its study causes pride in 
one's body and its physical gifts be- 



82 THE COLORED GIRL BEAUTIFUL 

cause it teaches the values and beauties 
of different parts of the body. 

The habit of deep breathing culti- 
vates Personality and Personal Mag- 
netism and thus makes one attractive. 
A great deal of the success in life 
comes from winning people through 
Personal Magnetism. 



Originality, 



A woman's mind should always be 
filled with a life plan, else she is in 
danger. A busy woman is generally a 
safe woman. She must find her life 
work and keep busy. Even a hobby is 
better than nothing if time hangs on 
her hands. She should do something 
with all her might and not delay, for 
Time is flying. 

A colored woman especially should 
have some purpose in life to further 
race advancement. It should not only 
be a high purpose but it should be 
something real. 

To be enthusiastic about something 
is beautifying because it stimulates the 
circulation of the blood. Any kind of 
success comes from enthusiasm. 

No matter how poor a woman may 

85 



8$ THE COLORED GIRL BEAUTIFUL 

be she may be original in her ideas. 
At first, of course, she must use the 
ideas of others, until she can show her 
cleverness through her adaptations, 
and employing her powers and gifts 
will add until larger powers and gifts 
result. 

She must try to get a new line of 
work for race advancement and dedi- 
cate herself to it. If she eliminates the 
Ego (Self) and will aim to work for 
the §;ood of others, she will succeed. 

Each one should find a realm, some- 
thing in which she shall be supreme, 
and be first. "It is better to be first 
in an Iberian village than second in 
Rome." The race needs daring orig- 
inal people, to think and speak. 

Emerson says, "Every man has a call 
to do something unique." 

The person who thinks up new lines 
of study, thought and ideas for the 
race, enlarging its vision and enrich- 



THE COLORED GIRL BEAUTIFUL 87 

ing its mind is a race benefactor. 
Ruskin's creed of work should be the 
universal creed. "The man or woman 
who does work worth doing is the man 
or woman who lives and breathes 
his work; with whom it is ever pres- 
ent in his or her soul; whose ambition 
is to do it well and feel rewarded by 
the thought of having done it well. 
That man, that woman, puts the whole 
country under an obligation." 

Colored women have a genius for 
leadership. There is great executive 
force in them. Many a colored woman 
is an undeveloped genius waiting for 
opportunity. One should try avenue 
after avenue until the right one opens, 
for her life work. 

In spite of criticism she must fight 
on, alone if necessary, "With God, one 
is a majority," said Frederick Doug- 
lass. 

If one can not be a genius or be orig- 
inal, she may do anything near at hand. 



88 THE COLORED GIRL BEAUTIFUL 

She should find something to do so that 
she will have something to talk about 
besides herself and her friends. 

One might take up the study of 
music, voice culture, elocution, art, em- 
broidery or housekeeping (domestic 
science) and pass it along to others. 

The surest way to make people "take 
notice of one" is to work for others. 
One may also live in peoples' hearts as 
well as their minds, if she will ally her- 
self with a good humanitarian cause. 

If one is not what is termed re- 
ligious, or is lacking in religious feel- 
ing, she should at least conceal this 
serious void by showing respect for re- 
ligion in no unmistakable terms for the 
sake of example. One should always 
hold up Christian ideals even though 
she may not be a spiritual woman 
or be called an earthly saint. She can 
hold up for a more rigid moral code 
and the highest thought in ethics. 

It pays to be respected, but after one 



THE COLORED GIRL BEAUTIFUL 89 

has trusted and has been disappointed, 
deceived, and betrayed, she will find 
that it pays best to keep close to the 
"Cross" where that "One always listens 
and understands." One should not get 
too far away from "It" because one is 
certain to return sooner or later. 

The best representative people go to 
church if only for example's sake. 
Even if one were not extremely re- 
ligious she could be an authority on 
religions, reading up the history of 
other churches as well as one's own 
church discipline. One might originate 
prayers or "graces" for the table and 
sell printed copies for a local charity. 

Any woman should be proud to es- 
pouse the cause of children and their 
broader education, as well as their 
health and happiness. One might try 
to bring a musical artist or lecturer to 
them every two or three years. 

Every day of one's life there is an 
opportunity to make some one happy. 



90 THE COLORED GIRL BEAUTIFUL 

One might amuse herself by keeping a 
diary of her efforts along this line. 

Speech is a cultivated talent. One 
might study to be good company, not 
to be funny or witty, but she might 
study the art of expressing herself; not 
to air her knowledge, that would be 
vulgar, but to store her memory with 
a fund of information concerning the 
great paintings and works of art, and 
lives of great composers. 

One might even be an authority on 
economy and demonstrate how to make 
over dresses, hats, etc. 

One could economize on her ward- 
robe and travel on the savings giving 
little "Travelogues" to those less for- 
tunate. There is an indescribable joy 
and satisfaction in serving others, even 
though the recipients are not grateful. 
It gives one a sense of power and 
wealth. 

One might even cultivate her sensi- 
bilities and increase her knowledge of 



THE COLORED GIRL BEAUTIFUL 91 

the beautiful in Nature and Art, to carry 
young folks upon little Nature and Art 
expeditions to the country or to muse- 
ums. Permission might be granted to 
enter many closed doors. The word 
children is often an open sesame. 

If one is tied down to life work in- 
side her home, she may manufacture 
smiles and cultivate a beautiful speak- 
ing voice. It is a pleasant occupation 
to bring smiles to the faces of others. 
It is rather fascinating to try to change 
the expression of other people's faces 
by exaggerating the happy timbre in 
one's voice. Even if one may not do 
big things she may charge the atmos- 
phere with smiles. 

When I was a girl, an old friend 
used to say to me, "Never let people 
down you, always come up smiling." 
One may come up from troubles and 
bitterness with a forced smile until the 
smiling muscles act for themselves, 
automatically. 



92 THE COLORED GIRL BEAUTIFUL 

One may also cultivate good man- 
ners until she wins a wide reputation 
for real ladyship, and thus be an ex- 
ample. Only the uncertain are im- 
polite; fear is their ruler. Those who 
own strength and power are always 
those who are gentle because they are 
sure of their life position. Real polite- 
ness is only an outward expression of 
the generous impulses of the heart; it 
is inborn. Politeness may be cultivated 
until it passes for the real thing. 

Originality does not include exclu- 
siveness. Exclusiveness is deadly to 
originality. The exclusive woman is 
seldom of service to the race, and she 
is not always a congenial or an agree- 
able person. She may live so much to 
herself that she is uninteresting as well 
as selfish. She touches nothing vital 
excepting books and has nothing else 
to talk about. 

One should train herself to make a 
perfect social circle as far as she is able. 



THE COLORED GIRL BEAUTIFUL 93 

The display of wealth is never orig- 
inal — only vulgar — and only an inborn 
vulgar woman would place her so 
called friends at a disadvantage by en- 
tertaining them beyond their power of 
return. 

It is pathetic to watch the social ef- 
forts — "climbing" — of people with only 
money "Sans" brains and originality. 



Youth and Maturity. 



The two attractive periods in a 
woman's life are girlhood and matur- 
ity. If girlhood is not sufficiently at- 
tractive a girl may go into beauty 
training for maturity. 

Many women who perservere in 
right thinking and right actions have 
three stages of attractiveness, youth, 
maturity, and old age. 

A face that reflects nothing is seldom 
beautiful. 

To be beautiful one must think more, 
love more, in the right way, and give 
more in the right way. 

A girl should not try to get old and 
look old, for age comes to her soon 
enough. Girlhood comes but once in 
a lifetime. One must keep young by 

97 



98 THE COLORED GIRL BEAUTIFUL 

being young and "thinking young/' 
One must never let tiredness leave its 
mark either in the face or poise. Tired- 
ness has never attracted and when peo- 
ple say that one looks tired, it is time 
to smile and deny it, for the "Spot" is 
beginning to take form. The body 
should never be permitted to settle. In 
Cuba, the women have enormous hips 
because they sit so much and are in- 
active. 

Each muscular movement should re- 
flect health and youth until one feels 
hardy and young. One should breathe 
all the fresh air that she can consume. 
Breathing is a vital force which sends 
blood to fill out wrinkles and eradicate 
blemishes and spots. 

The fair, fat, and forty age is no 
longer dreaded. Like Lillian Russell, 
women are learning to keep the face 
youthful by keeping the illusion of 
youth and the belief that she is youth- 
ful. If we feel young we look young. 



Self Control 



"Will Power is the rudder of the ship 
of life." 

A woman's life is about what she 
makes it. She is her own Fate. The 
law that governs one, governs all hu- 
manity, because the laws of thought 
are the laws of the universe. The mind 
and body are co-workers. "As a man 
thinks, so is he." Great men are those 
who see to it that the mental force is 
stronger than the material, and who 
"Will" that thought shall rule their 
world. 

Every thought stimulates certain 
brain cells, and exercises some nerve, 
tissue or muscle. Man's superiority to 
animal is due to this mental action. 

Actions speak louder than words. 
101 



102 THE COLORED GIRL BEAUTIFUL 

They are published thoughts. Every 
movement of every portion of the body 
has significance. Picking up a glass, 
a cup, or tools and other habits reflect 
the mind and its superiority to the 
physical. There is no surer way to 
judge people. 

Every face tells a tale and we read 
character from the physical form — the 
head, the backbone, the eye, the mouth, 
the chin, or hand. The uplifted eye, 
the corners of the mouth, the manner 
in which one eats or stands, in fact 
every movement has a special mean- 
ing, which may be easily read. 

The body is like a camera, it tells 
the truth; it is the outward sign of in- 
ward grace, or vice versa. 

Some one has said "Women's char- 
acters are writ large on their faces and 
God writes a perfectly plain hand." 
Because women are more emotional 
than men and because they often in- 
dulge themselves in emotions, the signs 



THE COLORED GIRL BEAUTIFUL 103 

are frequently very evident. If we study 
these signs when we meet others we 
may "size them up," and almost know r 
what is passing through their minds. 
Because of sexual magnetism men 
read women more easily than they read 
men. 

Mental habits soon become reflective 
or automatic. In order to read others 
we must study ourselves, discover our 
habits and tendencies and trace them 
to their source for correction. 

The time has arrived for new 
thoughts, new studies, and new habits. 
Colored women must be led along the 
new lines of thinking. Although many 
have seemed stupid about some of the 
abstract studies, they have native pow- 
ers that have too long lain dormant. 

Many are permitting their forces to 
go to waste instead of controlling 
them. They must discipline themselves 
to gain self control over such habits as 



104 THE COLORED GIRL BEAUTIFUL 



over-eating, coarseness, inertia, anger, 
and other beauty destroyers. 

Any excessive emotion debilitates 
the nervous system and thus affects 
good looks. 

Proper poise prolongs life because 
pressure on certain organs is evenly 
distributed and no strain is placed on 
any particular muscles to cause ab- 
cesses or tumors, etc. Improved cir- 
culation of the blood results, and good 
circulation spells health. One can 
think better when poise is correct for 
the same reason. 

The conversation of people gives a 
pretty correct estimate of character. 
Complaints from people who are sorry 
for themselves is one of the tell-tale 
evidences of a weak character. 

There is a present day need of 
knowledge concerning a certain con- 
tagion of emotions. Strong feeling 
sometimes vibrates that which is hos- 
tile and selfish. One fretful, scolding 



THE COLORED GIRL BEAUTIFUL 105 

woman can upset a neighborhood, to 
say nothing of a household. 

One's thoughts should be of love 
and peace, instead of worry and fear, 
lest she may harm others. A woman 
should be unafraid to conquer life's prob- 
lems. She should have faith in herself 
or she will be a dreamer instead of a 
doer. She must be positive instead of 
negative, but be positive in the right way 
which includes the thought and help for 
others. 

Voices reflect the mind and soul, so 
the colored woman should control the 
speaking voice. 

Ella Wheeler Wilcox has said, 
"Some voices affect us like music, 
Some voices arouse to action and am- 
bition. 
Some voices fill you with despondency. 
Some voices irritate like a buzz-saw. 
Some voices snap like turtles, and some 
hiss like serpents." 
Control of the speaking voice is one 



106 THE COLORED GIRL BEAUTIFUL 

of the most admired evidences of self 
control. 

The power of the mind over the body 
is said to be greater than any germ. 
Compelling the mind to perform some 
one useful disagreeable act each day is 
a splendid habit trainer. The influences 
that we exert over others will depend 
to a great extent upon the control over 
our own habits as well as the resistance 
to influence that others might exert 
over us. 

One must conquer habits of laziness, 
untidiness, extravagance, voice, ges- 
tures, clothing, to gain power to con- 
centrate Thought. 



Her Relationship With Men. 



Many girls think that they under- 
stand men, but they flatter themselves. 
Men do not always understand them- 
selves, and often do things because 
they have been led to "the doing," by 
misunderstanding the girl. 

A man likes to measure up to the 
opinion of sympathy, strength, protec- 
tion, or wickedness, that he imagines a 
girl has of him. He often says and 
does things to please the girl more 
than to please himself. 

Girls often throw out allurements 
and temptations especially in the way 
of immodest dress and seemingly in- 
nocent actions which have been the 
downfall of men as well as of them- 
selves. While men have known that the 

109 



110 THE COLORED GIRL BEAUTIFUL 

temptations were deliberately planned, 
they have not had sufficient will power 
to resist. It is an unpardonable crime 
for a young girl to take such an ad- 
vantage for frequently she ruins the 
career of a man. Such a girl has two 
souls to answer for when her own down- 
fall is a sufficient burden to carry. 

Some girls complain of insults from 
men. There are so many good reasons 
which could be given for this, but girls 
would indignantly deny that one rea- 
son is that they bring this upon them- 
selves. 

They discuss slippery subjects and 
personal experiences, and "heart long- 
ings" which call forth the ever present 
manly (masculine) sympathy. This 
often leads to actions afterwards re- 
gretted. 

Men are good readers of the public 
bulletin — a girl's face. They see the 
mark of intoxicants, impure thoughts 
and other weaknesses as if they were 



THE COLORED GIRL BEAUTIFUL 111 

spelled out on the features, and as they 
are keenly sensitive to projected vibra- 
tions, they act accordingly. 

Sometimes dusk, or night's darkness 
is to blame for much mischief. Moral 
resistance seems to be at low ebb at 
this time, and an evidence of timidity 
or other feminine weakness may be 
misunderstood — read incorrectly as a 
feminine subterfuge seeking physical 
contact. 

If one will always expect good from 
men — the men will generally rise to it. 
Try to believe that every man is chiv- 
alrous, but do not put his chivalry to 
too severe a test. 

Curiosity and a too venturesome 
spirit may lead to mischief and trouble 
too great to be remedied. One must 
not think or project impure thoughts, 
nor must she expect insults and fa- 
miliarities. Men generally respond to 
the (influencing) thought. They feel 
the thoughts and obey them. 



112 THE COLORED GIRL BEAUTIFUL 

Girls must remember that most men 
talk. Some will tell on girls if it is 
the last act of their lives, although they 
may not mean to tell. A newly mar- 
ried man will tell his wife, or another 
will tell his affinity. Another may 
drink too much and grow confidential. 
Some even talk in their sleep. One 
may not think that she will escape; her 
indiscretions will follow her to her life- 
long regret. 

She should not try to be a woman 
too early in life, and should not marry 
too early. She should study her phy- 
sique and her constitution. She should 
not permit desire and curiosity to con- 
trol her good sense. Long illness, suf- 
fering, operations, and even early death 
may result from premature responsi- 
bility. If necessary, she should consult 
a physician and look the future square- 
ly in the face. 

Girls do not now mature as early as 
their mothers and grandmothers did, 



THE COLORED GIRL BEAUTIFUL 113 

and they have not the same power 
of endurance and resistance, because 
times, conditions, and the mode of liv- 
ing have changed. 

Long engagements should not be en- 
couraged. If a man wants a girl he 
will wait patiently without any cod- 
dling or coaxing. Long engagements 
are enervating. Engaged couples feel 
that they are licensed by public opinion 
and they tax their powers in a way that 
married people would not dare to do. 
Too much liberty in long engagements is 
so often a serious menace to health and 
happiness in after marriage relationship. 
It takes away the charm and bloom of 
married life because the man learns to 
know his fiancee too well. 



The Religion of the Colored Girl 

Beautiful. 



God is the perfection in all that is 
good. God is the best in us. God is 
the perfection of all that is beautiful, 
orderly and harmonious — the 100 per 
cent of everything in the world. 

The religion of the colored girl beau- 
tiful should teach her that everything is 
spiritual — sacred — because everything 
comes from God. 

It is not sufficient to say, "I am a 
Christian (I am spiritual — of the 
Spirit)'' unless one expresses this in 
countless ways each day. Not only in 
kind, helpful actions and gentle speech, 
but in the work-a-day life. 

The colored girl beautiful expresses 
her Christianity — her spirituality — the 
best, or 100 per cent in her, when she 

117 



118 THE COLORED GIRL BEAUTIFUL 

puts Christ into every act of her every 
day life. No act should be too insig- 
nificant for this expression. 

The parables of Jesus teach us that 
He put His Spirit into the lowest act, 
as for instance in the parable of the 
tent-maker. 

If the colored girl beautiful is truly 
of His Spirit she will spiritualize, light 
up her every day environment with the 
"Light" that is in her as a beacon to 
others as well as to show her appre- 
ciation of a priceless possession. 

Each day she has innumerable oppor- 
tunities to express the Christ in her — 
her spirituality — in the neatness of her 
apparel, and in the tidiness of her home 
and yard. She may take her religion 
— her Christ — into the kitchen and ex- 
press Him and the 100 per cent spirit- 
uality in her cooking, sweeping, and in 
her dish washing. 

Doing things well expresses the pro- 
portion of the Christ — the perfection — 



THE COLORED GIRL BEAUTIFUL 119 

the 100 per cent in us. The more 
Christ one claims, the better should one 
express Christ in his daily labor as 
every-day evidence. 

A low daily percentage is a poor rec- 
ord for one who claims spirituality on 
Sunday. 

No untidy clinch, home, or school 
expresses Christ — for Christ represents 
perfection in cleanliness and order. 
"Cleanliness is next to Godliness" we 
are told. Cleanliness shows the spirit- 
ual, the God, but dirt in any form is 
an expression of the opposite. Dirt 
under a bed and a prayer beside it are 
not compatible, to say the least, un- 
less the "pray-er" is unable to sweep. 

The Christ principles properly in- 
terpreted and applied would spiritualize 
a broom and duster and all the utensils 
of a home or the tools of a trade. 

Order is an expression of the God- 
part which makes us more orderly in 



120 THE COLORED GIRL BEAUTIFUL 

the habits of life if we make preten- 
sions as Christians. 

God is not onl) r all that is perfect in 
cleanliness, order and harmony, but He 
is also all that is perfect in color and 
sound. God is in the body and all its 
parts, the hair, teeth — all. 

As harmony and color are expres- 
sions of Spirituality so good taste in 
dressing" expresses the God in us. By 
observing- and studying- Nature one 
learns God's taste .in color and what is 
harmonious. 

We should dress to suit the color of 
the face and the physical attributes that 
have been given to us. God has ap- 
propriately garbed each object in Na- 
ture. Colored people should study 
themselves and dress accordingly. The 
bright, gay colors are not suitable to 
all. Many violate the laws of har- 
mony of color, and unconsciously ex- 
pose the ugliest in their appearance by 



THE COLORED GIRL BEAUTIFUL 121 

wearing gaudy, unbecoming, inappro- 
priate clothes. 

As the harmony of sound comes from 
God, so an eloquent voice expresses 
God. Christians should make their 
voices more elegant and eloquent. A 
loud, coarse voice expresses the op- 
posite of God. Coarseness in thought 
and speech is unlike Christ and serves 
to reveal opposite attributes to those 
He represents. Grunting is not spirit- 
ual. No one could imagine a grunt from 
Christ. 

A graceful motion or gesture also 
reflects the God in us. One would 
never imagine any rough, uncouth ges- 
ture from Christ, who is the "pattern 
of patterns." Grimaces are not spirit- 
ual besides they leave lines in the face. 

A respect for the rights of others ex- 
presses the God in us, as do obedience 
and kindness. We are told in positive 
language by God to respect our elders 
and superiors. 



122 THE COLORED GIRL BEAUTIFUL 

Race pride expresses the God in us. 
The Israelites were the chosen people 
because of blood ties. They were proud 
of their blood. Blood is thicker than 
water. The real Christian should be 
proud of his people ; he should believe 
in them and uplift them as our Great 
Example did the lowly. 

The reverence which expresses God 
will cause one to respect His house or 
any portion of it. A Christian would 
not handle a Bible carelessly and would 
dust it as a privilege, because it is the 
message from God. A Christian would 
not tear or disfigure any sacred book 
or selection of music, while to sit upon 
the sacred rail of the altar or pulpit 
would be an unpardonable act of sacri- 
lege. 

The proper care of any article be- 
longing to the Sacred Service is an ex- 
pression of Spirituality because it 
recognizes the article as a medium of 



' THE COLORED GIRL BEAUTIFUL 123 

spirituality, something which should 
be reverenced. 

The singing of religious songs in any 
but a spiritual frame of mind would be 
sacrilege just as the taking of the 
Lord's name in ordinary conversation 
or in exclamation is sacrilege. 

The same religion or Spirituality 
which makes one shout, pray and sing 
should prompt a girl not to wear a 
pale pink or blue satin dress or other 
inappropriate fancy decollete dress to 
worship in God's House. She cannot 
worship God and mammon at the same 
time and she should not be the means 
of distracting anyone from spiritual 
thoughts through envy or disgust. 

The Christ in a person will prevent 
her from speech and action which 
would hurt the chances or success of 
another person. God has warned us 
that the violation of this rule will 
surely return evil to the violator. His 



124 THE COLORED GIRL BEAUTIFUL 

law has many references to this par- 
ticular self punishment. 

It can not be denied that Divinity 
has specially endowed the Negro spirit- 
ually, but he does not consistently ex- 
press it in all the forms that he might 
express it, especially in the great Race 
cause. He is full of heart, and will give 
his money, his food, his life, for God — 
but he does not yet realize that the 
same love for God that he puts into 
his gifts should be expressed and ap- 
plied in his daily walks in life as Christ 
has expressly commanded. 

We are taught that there are four 
kinds of Emotional Expression: The 
Egotistic which is self and in the inter- 
est of self as in joy, rapture and grief; 
the Aesthetic which has its expression 
in Nature and Art; the Ethical which 
has its expression in the moral law; the 
Religious which expression is in the 
faith of the Supreme Being. 

As yet the Negro has only fully ex- 



THE COLORED GIRL BEAUTIFUL 125 

pressed himself in but two: The Ego- 
tistic, or the self interest, and the Re- 
ligious, or the faith in the Supreme 
Being. 

The Negro undoubtedly brought 
about his own freedom through his 
own spirituality, and faith, and the 
concentrated, united thought of a 
whole people upon one subject — free- 
dom. His remarkable progress since 
emancipation has been due to the same 
faith. 

The Negro should be, and could 
easily be the spiritual teacher — or ex- 
ample — of the world. He must not 
only prove his spirituality but he must 
diffuse it, that others may realize its 
power even if they may not receive 
its benefit. 

Christ, the Supreme Example of 
spirituality was quiet. Other race* 
hold that ideal, of spirituality. When 
they see and hear a Negro shout, weep 
and pray and then find that same per- 



126 THE COLORED GIRL BEAUTIFUL 

son uncouth and dirty, they cannot 
reconcile the two conditions, and so 
doubt the spiritual element which they 
call Emotionalism. (They do not re- 
member that the Spirit may be strong 
and the flesh weak.) 

These critics cannot believe that an 
untidy, ignorant man with dirty teeth 
stained with tobacco juice can give 
spiritual advice, and one must admit 
that it does look incompatible. 

The race needs more quality in Emo- 
tion and less quantity. 

Once convince the rankest Negro 
hater that the Negro undoubtedly has 
spirituality, which is surely advancing 
him and the race, and a certain respect 
will follow. 

Each Negro must consider himself 
a spiritual missionary whose appear- 
ance, speech, actions and surroundings 
will reflect the storehouse of the great 
Light within. 

The colored ministers who preach 



THE COLORED GIRL BEAUTIFUL 127 

Emotionalism, or what they term the 
expression of spirituality should see to 
it that their flocks spiritualize their 
daily lives causing cleaner churches, 
schools, homes, yards, wearing apparel 
and Christian thoroughness in each 
daily act, thus showing 100 per cent 
spirituality. 

The colored ministers who preach 
Noti -Emotionalism should prove that 
the power of spiritual expression is be- 
ing directed along channels which are 
helping their flocks and the race in 
each daily act, not only in race progress 
but in convincing doubting Thomases 
who are blind to the good traits in the 
race. 

The so-called Spiritual Power which 
rvould cause a woman to run down 
tin aisle and mash the hats of others, 
or to throw hand bags and give similar 
evidences of strength and emotion 
could be turned into safer and more 
helpful channels — as far as her race is 



128 THE COLORED GIRL BEAUTIFUL 

concerned. A woman possessed of 
this power and energy could be a great 
leader in great deeds if she were taught 
how to do this. A shouter who can 
not help the race in the battle against 
prejudice in her special locality, by ex- 
pressing her spirituality in each daily 
word and act as well as apparel, and 
surroundings, seems a poor example of 
spiritual expression. 

The religion that does not help to- 
ward the advancement of this perse- 
cuted race, and does not win the ad- 
miration and respect of other races, is 
not the religion for the colored girl 
beautiful, of today. 

As a rule colored people expect en- 
tirely too much help from God. We 
must help ourselves more. Each Negro 
carries a three-fold burden; first, his 
own personal burden; second, the bur- 
den of his posterity, and third, the bur- 
den of the race. These follow each 



THE COLORED GIRL BEAUTIFUL 129 

other and are dependent upon each 
other. 

God has given him physical strength, 
a strong backbone and strong shoulders 
to carry the heavy yoke of the three-fold 
burden, as well as a wealth of spiritual- 
ity to cheer him and keep his heart 
light, along the way of life. 

The religion of the Negro should 
prompt less study of the desires of the 
personal Ego, and should teach other 
nations to respect his race, or, his re- 
ligion is not spiritualizing as it could 
and should spiritualize. 

The religion of the colored girl must 
be spiritual in every sense, that it may 
influence her every thought and act, and 
make her a true medium for race prog- 
ress. 



The School of the Colored Girl 
Beautiful. 



''Education is the process of develop- 
ing all man's powers, physical, intel- 
lectual, moral, aesthetic and religious 
for the proper discharge of the duties 
of citizenship. " 

The school that the colored girl 
beautiful should attend will have trees, 
grass, flowers, shrubs and a garden 
(even though a small one) that the girl 
may keep in close touch with the first 
teacher — Mother Nature. 

The care of the school campus as 
well as the windows, fences, and sur- 
roundings, will reflect the careful spirit 
of the school. 

The colored girl beautiful will select 
the school which fights flies, dirt, filth 
around back doors; the school which 

133 



134 THE COLORED GIRL BEAUTIFUL 

• 

aims for sanitation before putting in 
electric lights; in fact, a school which 
has health and sanitation for its hobby. 

She will attend a school that buys 
books and takes care of them and which 
compels the students to read that they 
may grow into the reading habit, to pass 
it along to posterity. 

The progress of the race will depend 
not upon the "book learning" taught in 
schools, but upon the right habits form- 
ed and the amount of self culture that 
the school inspires. 

The colored girl beautiful will be 
taught to keep her eyes open and her 
mouth shut that she may never betray 
how little she has really learned in her 
preparation for the real school — the 
school of Life. 

The colored girl beautiful will be 
taught her duty and relationship to the 
race, that she may be a living example 
of what right education and right 
training will do. She will study human 



THE COLORED GIRL BEAUTIFUL 135 

needs and about the history and prog- 
ress of her people that she may take 
her place in the affairs of her race if 
called upon, and then bequeath her 
knowledge and good qualities to suc- 
ceeding generations. She will be taught 
lessons of self-control and modesty; to 
respect her womanhood and to conduct 
herself that she may command respect 
from all men and boys including those 
of her family. 

She will be taught enough of the 
world to step into its arena knowing 
the evils to shun. She will be taught 
to hold out a helping hand to weaker 
ones who may succumb to evil. 

She will aim to live in pleasant re- 
lationship in the school that she may 
acquire the habit of living in peace in 
social circles and neighborhoods in the 
scheme of after life. 

She will be taught that politeness is 
a necessary virtue; that every form of 
impoliteness is an evidence of mental 



136 THE COLORED GIRL BEAUTIFUL 

as well as moral weakness and that an 
ill bred colored girl is a curse to the 
race. She will be taught the value of 
silence and that of speech, and will aim 
to train herself along both lines for 
silence is often more effective than 
speech. 

She will learn that the aim of educa- 
tion is the aim of religion, that is, to 
lift one above the animal. She will 
endeavor to lift herself to the highest 
plane of true womanhood that she may 
pull others higher. 

Colored schools are supposed to cor- 
rect the tendencies of children who 
have lived under careless, untidy con- 
ditions, and to give them ideals of 
cleanliness and order. 

She will do her part of the school 
work cheerfully and thoroughly, that 
she may know how work should be 
done, and how to train others — her 
children, perhaps, if so favored. 

The colored girl beautiful will be 



THE COLORED GIRL BEAUTIFUL 137 

taught the value and use of money, and 
the relative value of character, educa- 
tion, and other things, which money can- 
not buy. She will be taught the care and 
cleanliness of the body, simplicity of 
wearing apparel and appropriate becom- 
ing inconspicuous costumes for church, 
school, street and home. 

She will be taught that fine clothes 
can not cover up bad manners, nor take 
the place of good character; that it is 
foolish to buy what one can not af- 
ford; that the expenditure for clothes 
especially should be gauged by one's 
salary and should be appropriate for 
her particular plane of life. 

The laws of proportion in the scheme 
of life must be the hobby of the school 
for the colored girl beautiful. 

She will be taught that it is unfor- 
givable not, to walk erect, to talk in 
good English and in a soft tone of 
voice. 

As many girls fall into book ignor- 



138 THE COLORED GIRL BEAUTIFUL 

ance after graduation she will be 
taught that the aim of education is to 
give good habits of reading along with 
book-knowledge — or else the school has 
failed to educate a colored girl beauti- 
ful. 

The colored girl beautiful will not 
aim for book education alone. She will 
select a school which will fit her to grace 
her home from parlor to kitchen, a 
school which has thoroughness for its 
motto. 

She will be taught how to make her 
dresses and hats, to prepare for the 
time when perhaps her allowance for 
clothes must be divided among several. 
Dressmaking is a science as well as an 
art and enough can be learned, by 
those not apt, to save many dollars — 
especially in the home that fate favors 
with children. 

She will be taught a trade, or some 
means of earning a livelihood, that she 
may be prepared, if circumstances, 



THE COLORED GIRL BEAUTIFUL 139 

should force her into the business 
arena. 

The school of the colored girl beauti- 
ful will so educate her that motherhood 
will be her highest ideal in life, the 
glory of colored womanhood. 



The Home of the Colored Girl 
Beautiful. 



The Home of the Colored Girl Beau- 
tiful will reflect her. She will help her 
parents to buy a home that it may give 
her family more standing in the civic 
community. Taste and simplicity will 
rule, for the home will harmonize with 
the girl. If her parents are not par- 
ticular about the trifles in the way of 
curtains, fences, and yards, then it 
must be her special task to make the 
home represent the beautiful in her, the 
God, for all that is beautiful and good 
comes from God. 

Windows generally express the char- 
acter of the occupants of a house. The 
day has passed when soiled or ragged 
lace curtains are tolerated. The cheap- 
er simpler scrims and cheese cloths 

143 



144 THE COLORED GIRL BEAUTIFUL 

which are easily laundered are now 
used by the best people. 

The Colored Girl Beautiful, will 
study the possibilities of her home and 
will attempt to secure the restful ef- 
fects for the eye. Too much furniture 
is bad taste. The less one has, the 
cleaner houses may be kept. 

The ornate heavy furniture and the 
upholstered parlor sets are passing 
away because they are no longer con- 
sidered good taste, besides they are too 
heavy for cleanliness and are harmful 
to the health of women who do their 
own work. 

Furniture of less expensive model, 
with simple lines and of less weight 
are being selected. These may be paid 
for cash instead of "on time," as has 
been the custom of many people in 
smaller towns and in the country dis- 
tricts. 

The furniture sold by the payment 



THE COLORED GIRL BEAUTIFUL 145 

houses always shows its source in its 
heaviness and shininess. 

The wall paper should be selected 
as one would select a color for clothes, 
to harmonize with the color of the 
skin in all lights, and, for service 
Color schemes in decoration are being 
followed and we have no more stuffy 
parlors, often closed for days. In- 
stead we have living rooms, with clean- 
able furniture, strong but light, entirely 
suitable for winter, and cool in sum- 
mer. No one has a parlor now-a-days. 
The best room is generally a living 
room for the whole family. No more 
do we see enlarged pictures which good 
taste demands should be placed in bed 
rooms and private sitting rooms. The 
ten cent stores have done a great deal 
of good in educating the poor white 
and black alike. These stores have 
every where sold small brown art 
prints of many of the great paintings, 



146 THE COLORED GIRL BEAUTIFUL 

to take the place of the gaudy dust 
ladened chromos and family pictures. 

Pictures are hung low that they may 
be thoroughly dusted, as well as to 
give a near view of the subject. 

Expensive carpets are also things of 
the past. Painted and stained floors 
with light weight rugs are more gen- 
erally used. These may be cleaned and 
handled without giving the backache to 
women. Many colored girls boast of 
having painted their own floors and 
woodwork. Much of this has been 
learned in the boarding school. 

A tawdry home expresses its mis- 
tress as do her clothes. 

Next to the kitchen a fully equipped 
bath room is now the most important 
room in the house. Health and sani- 
tation are the topics of the hour and a 
colored girl should know how to put 
a washer on a faucet as well as her 
father or brother. 

A house without books is indeed an 



THE COLORED GIRL BEAUTIFUL 147 

unfurnished home. Good books are 
the fad now. They are everywhere in 
evidence in the up-to-date colored 
home. They are exhibited almost as 
hand painted china was. In every in- 
ventory or collection one finds a Bible, 
a dictionary, and an atlas. 

The times are changing and the col- 
ored people are changing with the 
times. Cleanliness and health are the 
watchwords, and "Order" is Heaven's 
first law. 



The Colored Working Girl Beautiful. 



No one should ever scorn a colored 
working woman. She has been the 
bone and sinew of the race. She has 
built the churches, helped the schools 
and has made the race what it is. The 
pioneer colored woman in most in- 
stances has helped to make the wealth 
that many colored families enjoy, to- 
day. 

In my travels, on entering Southern 
towns early in the morning, colored 
women are the only women seen on the 
streets, and sometimes the only per- 
sons. They hurry along often with in- 
sufficient clothing in cold and rain. 

One thinks of the little ones at 
home who dress themselves and per- 
haps, younger children, all without a 
mother's care, until night when the 
tired woman's return to her home to 
cook, to wash and to iron for her fam- 

151 



152 THE COLORED GIRL BEAUTIFUL 

ily after a hard day's work, in service. 
In the antebellum days some of the 
Negro working women may have been 
lazy but their descendants of today are 
not lazy — only fifty years after. Sta- 
tistics prove how many homes have 
been bought through their labor, how 
many children are sent to school. Work- 
ing women pay the family doctor bills, 
and support the churches and charities. 

"Every person should work or else 
she will need a doctor." Habits affect 
looks. If one is energetic and happy in 
doing her work, her face will reflect 
the contentment. If one hates work, 
the face will reflect discontent, the vital 
organs will grow flabby and affect the 
health, and looks will suffer. Enthu- 
siasm in work stimulates the vital or- 
gans, causes circulation of the blood 
and makes the eye bright and the skin 
to take on a more healthy hue. 

If a girl is obliged to work in a 
kitchen she should respect her work 
and dignify her position. She may be 



THE COLORED GIRL BEAUTIFUL 153 

a "Somebody" washing dishes or scrub- 
bing a floor, if she does not depreciate 
her work and if she will give it status in- 
stead of half doing it and complaining 
about it. 

Only a somebody "can" work well. 
We cannot get blood out of a turnip, 
and neither can a nobody "do" things. 
A slip-shod, half-hearted working- 
woman is a curse to the race, because 
she gives it a bad reputation. She 
should put the ''somebody" stamp on 
every portion of daily work and do the 
work as if she expected to get a di- 
ploma for it each night. She should 
not work mechanically or it will be 
drudgery. She should put pride and en- 
thusiasm in her w r ork, and let it reflect 
her inner self. 

It is the duty of every working girl 
to make her employer adore her for 
her personal value and her word. "Do 
so much better work than you are paid 
to do that not only your employers, but 
their friends will take note and soon 



154 THE COLORED GIRL BEAUTIFUL 

you will be paid for more than you 
do." 

Be ready for the opportunity or crisis 
which is bound to come in a change 
for the better. Stick to a position like 
a leach. Make it a bigger and better 
one than you found it and it will pre- 
pare you for greater openings. Some- 
body is always watching good work- 
ers. 

In her relationship with men the 
colored working girl beautiful will put 
a higher appraisement on herself than 
may be necessary in the case of the 
more fate-favored colored girl who 
stays under her parents roof. Because 
she works is no reason why she should 
be cheap, easily attained, or easily 
pleased as far as men are concerned. 

She will demand much instead of 
little from men, that they will offer 
more for the privilege of her society. 
Unless she is engaged she will be wise 
to permit no caresses and will try to 



THE COLORED GIRL BEAUTIFUL 155 

conquer the tendency towards accept- 
ing "petting/' 

She will bide her time for the recog- 
nition of her worth. Many a servant 
girl has seen her posterity lead a town, 
socially. 

To know how to wait is a great 
secret; to patiently bide the time when 
one may step into the niche that right 
living and preparation has made pos- 
sible. She will try to be contented and 
will strive for power to conquer her 
work, and herself to be ready for the 
day when opportunity will open her 
door to a larger and more responsible 
life. The beautiful part about this is 
that she will be ready to fit into this 
new condition of life. 

She should observe, listen and imi- 
tate the good when at work. Contact 
is often worth more than money. Many 
valuable lessons have been learned 
while "in service." While alone work- 
ing one has opportunity to "think" and 
Thought rules the world. 



156 THE COLORED GIRL BEAUTIFUL 

A colored working girl is a racial 
trust. Her race burden is a heavy one. 
Her speech, actions and diligence con- 
stitute the measure by which the whole 
race is judged. 

One need not permit previous family 
conditions or disadvantages of birth to 
hamper her progress in life. No mat- 
ter what one's people have been or are, 
one is not to blame providing she rises 
above all of it. 

She must "get up" and pull her fam- 
ily up after her, if she can. If this 
can not be done she can pull herself 
up — up — up and be the "somebody" in 
the family. She may grow in char- 
acter, influence and reputation, until 
people will forget her ancestry and any 
objectionable relations as well as all 
former environment. 

The Colored Working Girl Beautiful 
should not fear or worry about what 
people may think. She should save her 
money. A bank account is always the 



THE COLORED GIRL BEAUTIFUL 157 

most respected thing in the struggle of 
life. 

Even if some single black deed 
threatens to blot out the whole of a 
good life (in one's own case or in the 
estimate of the world) she should be 
brave enough to live it down. One 
should put her personality into every- 
thing she does and "do" things worth 
while. The world moves on so fast that 
even the bad is forgotten soon. One may 
live anything down nowadays if one 
tries. 

If she may not go with good people 
socially, she should stay alone. In 
time she will make herself and others 
believe that this is her preference. 

She should not push or try to climb; 
she should bide her time. In the mean- 
time she might improve herself; she 
might study the piano, elocution or 
singing, and prepare for the day when 
opportunity will open the long-closed 
social door. 



The Colored Woman Beautiful. 



In spite of everything to be said on 
the subject the womanly woman is al- 
ways the strongest magnet whether 
she is called beautiful or not. 

If the colored girl has not been 
taught by her mother or guardian to 
train herself for a beautiful maturity 
even after she has passed girlhood, it 
is not too late to train herself. 

Good begets good, so she will exert 
herself to make a wide circle of friends 
altho she will be careful not to grow 
too intimate with any. She may be a 
real friend without undue intimacy. 

It is conceded that most women 
"must talk" to someone but too much 
intimacy means too much freedom and 
this often destroys friendship. 

One cannot argue, quarrel, or criti- 
cize and still expect real friendship. 
One definition of a friend is, "One 

161 



162 THE COLORED GIRL BEAUTIFUL l 

you know all about and still like." One 
should not try to "make her friends 
over" and one never says disagreeable 
things to her friends nor does she make 
unfavorable comments about their per- 
sonal attire or weaknesses. She lets 
her friends learn all unpleasant things 
from others. "The links of the chain of 
friendship are held by a very delicate 
thread." The tiniest word, doubt or 
action may sever the links. 

The colored woman beautiful will try 
to love that she may be loved. She 
believes that "man is his brother's keep- 
er" and she has ideals and visions for 
the race. She has a moral obligation; 
she reaches out a helping hand to 
others. She can mix without being 
mixed. We can not help others unless 
we mix. There must be close contact 
— touch to lift up others. 

The colored woman beautiful believes 
that everyone who gets up must pull 
up, or else she will be kept down by the 
weight of the racial burden. Each 



THE COLORED GIRL BEAUTIFUL 163 

one's welfare is closely bound with that 
of the masses. The race as a whole 
must progress and prosper, or else no 
unit may prosper. The colored woman 
beautiful gives the best in her for race 
advancement. She works, thinks, and 
reads to be ready for the need of the to- 
morrow and its problems. 

The colored woman beautiful will 
not carry "chips on her shoulder/' look- 
ing for slights and insults. If she car- 
ries the thought too strongly it be- 
comes catching and someone will take 
up the idea. She will set into motion 
lesser vibrations in the minds and 
bodies of others and the things she 
imagines will happen. 

She should resist thoughts of sus- 
picion. She must not think about the 
things she wishes to keep secret, for 
thoughts are contagious. 

The colored woman beautiful does 
not call another woman "bad" just be- 
cause she does not measure up to her 
ethical code. She must be so persist- 



164 THE COLORED GIRL BEAUTIFUL 

ent in being good herself that every- 
one else seems to look and act good. 
If God loves the lowest, she can afford 
to do likewise. She follows the rule, 
"Judge not that ye be not judged." 
She does not make the mistake of 
criticising those who have not her 
strong will power, lest having stronger 
projection this unkindness may return 
swift and sure to her. To permit the 
absent to be disparaged or depreciated 
in her presence is almost as harmful 
to herself as if she had said things. 

What is "good" in (another) 
woman? What is "bad" in (another) 
woman? These are two difficult ques- 
tions to answer and a woman must not 
judge by her own standard for her- 
self. Women are inclined to be too 
narrow in their viewpoint in judging 
other women. While one may boast 
of her virtue of virtues some women 
may have a bundle of lesser virtues of 
which to boast. It takes more than one 
virtue to make a good woman. Many 



THE COLORED GIRL BEAUTIFUL 165 

women are unduly vain of their escape 
from the "sin of sins" and some of these 
may have known no temptation. 

When one notes how many good 
friends a so-called "bad" woman may 
have, one wonders why it is. Those 
who understand the law of vibrations 
recognize that the woman has pro- 
jected something of herself which has 
brought her a rich return in spite ot 
her one weakness. 

It is a terrible thing to be a bad 
example along any line to young girls, 
so every colored woman should try to 
conquer herself and live down any 
weakness or error. She should give 
out the best that is in her that she 
may be a good example to younger 
women. She lets the light of love and 
purity shine in her face and transform 
it, and it will reflect in the faces of 
others and make her own soul the 
happier. 



The Colored Wife Beautiful. 



Married life is a co-partnership and 
the wife and husband pledge to mutual 
help, when they enter into the mar- 
riage contract. 

If in their girlhood wives had only 
studied men instead of giving up all 
their time to so-called "loving and 
courting," there would not be so much 
dissatisfaction, heart-ache and com- 
plaint after .marriage. A girl should try 
to select a man with control over him- 
self, over his voice, his emotions, even 
the angle of his hat, and then she 
should practice control herself, until 
the two dispositions have become ad- 
justed to each other. 

The ignorant girl who marries is full 
of trust and inexperienced notiqns. 
The disillusionments of life seem to 
come too fast to suit the majority. 
Many young wives immediately be- 

169 



170 THE COLORED GIRL BEAUTIFUL 

come discouraged or desperate and fall 
out of the ranks by the wayside of the 
matrimonial highway, without trying 
to live up to their end of the contract, 
or even respecting their own vows at 
the altar. 

"True loving is giving the best with- 
in us." When we have company we give 
to them the best food, the best linen, 
the best china and silver-ware that we 
own. Yet to those we are pledged to 
love and cherish we give anything, and 
wonder why in return we have failed in 
receiving love and all that goes with it. 

A divorce is a terrible "something." 
It is a blight to children and often 
means their ruin or the blasting of their 
future. If a woman has children she 
should try to endure her lot until they 
are grown. In the meantime she may 
prepare herself for a beautiful maturity 
and an entrance into the commercial 
world or another field of activity. 

Of course, if one's husband deserts 
her there is nothing else to do but let 



THE COLORED GIRL BEAUTIFUL 171 

him go, but if he clings to her and 
the home, she should use the protec- 
tion that his name gives to her until 
she is sure that she can buffet the 
world alone. 

In the larger field of public life a 
woman without the protection of a hus- 
band's name has a hard lot if she has 
physical or other attractions. Widows 
of both kinds are always under sus- 
picion. If one is lighthearted and en- 
joys even innocent pleasure, she may 
be called a "good timer," or "fast/* and 
this may injure her advancement in the 
arena of business life. 

The protection of the name of any 
kind of a man, bad, no account, or 
cruel, is better than the suffering from 
cruel suspicions which often blight the 
efforts of a sensitive woman, who per- 
haps in her loneliness has turned for 
sympathy this way and that way, 
until she concludes that if she suffers in 
name she may as well be "in the game," 
and chooses the wrong way. 



172 THE COLORED GIRL BEAUTIFUL 

If a woman has money it is quite dif- 
ferent. People fawn upon her and she 
is less liable to snubbing if Dame 
Gossip should assail her. 

The first duty of a wife is to keep 
healthy. Even if she is ailing she must 
not complain unless through mental 
suggestion she desires to increase her 
ailments, real or imaginary. She must 
earnestly endeavor to discover the 
cause of the alleged ailment and re- 
move it. 

The colored wife beautiful of today 
must be a composite woman because 
the colored man of today is many sided. 
They call woman a "creature of moods" 
but most men may easily be called sus- 
ceptible and changeable creatures, 
when it comes to the attractions of the 
opposite sex. 

Today it may be a pretty face which 
allures him; tomorrow a fine conver- 
sationalist, or a musical person may at- 
tract. The next day a woman with 
tremendous vitality may charm him. 



THE COLORED GIRL BEAUTIFUL 173 

So he wanders, but he does not intend 
to stray. One or several streaks in his 
make-up have been satisfied, but his 
wife still stands upon her pedestal as 
the woman who bears his name. 

The up-to-date w T ife realizes his sus- 
ceptibility (as a man) and is prepared. 
She bides her time when like the prod- 
'^al, he will surely return, perhaps 
mentally and morally purified and a 
wiser, if a sadder man. 

If a woman loves her husband and 
desires to keep him for herself and 
family, she must train herself for her 
many varied duties including attrac- 
tiveness, which is a real duty. 

If she thinks that some other 
woman has her husband's affection, her 
thoughts help her to make this so. It 
she voices the suspicion she fertilizes 
the soil and aids the growth or she may 
crystallize and give form to rumor. 

Even if there is ground for such a 
suspicion the up-to-date wife would not 
admit it to herself or voice the fact. 



174 THE COLORED GIRL BEAUTIFUL 

"Man's love is of man's life a part, 
'tis woman's whole existence." 

The inexperienced wives forget that 
they cannot satisfy every mood of a 
man without study or effort, unless 
they are remarkably gifted. Many a 
wife has neglected her mind, body and 
powers and when some woman with 
developed powers enters her marriage 
orbit, she flies off at a tangent, admits 
defeat and gets a divorce without put- 
ting forth an effort to win back the 
husband who is often worth saving. 

It is humiliating to admit, 'T have 
lost my husband!" A wife should 
never admit it, even in thought. 

Many a man does not intend to stray 
and loves his wife but he has been 
carried off his feet just for the mo- 
ment. 

There are Keeley cures to save men, 
why not husband cures to save homes, 
especially those with children whose 
futures are at stake. 

I know several colored women who 



THE COLORED GIRL BEAUTIFUL 175 

have had good ground for doubting 
their husband's fidelity who have never 
allowed the men to know that they 
have doubted them. 

One wife made a study of "the 
woman in the case" and threw her and 
her husband together in her home un- 
til the man was satiated. In the mean- 
time she studied herself and the woman 
to see what it was that attracted her 
husband. Then she went into training 
for the match — war — if it should come 
to that — in attractiveness, and she won 
without telling her secret. 

If a wife will give a man time and 
will play the attractive game as she 
did before marriage, her husband will 
soon turn his face homeward, and will 
wonder what the other charm was. 

Many men are attracted by youth 
alone and after youth has flown they 
are not interested. A wife should 
study the fancies of her husband if she 
desires to hold him, and then begin 



176 THE COLORED GIRL BEAUTIFUL 

work upon herself, to hold her youthful 
looks. 

Wives must prepare for the dan- 
gerous age which they say conies to a 
woman between thirty-five and forty- 
five, and to a man from forty to fifty, 
when both are accused of being at- 
tracted to younger faces, and when 
they do foolish things. A wife must 
strengthen herself, lest she stray, and 
cultivate her own attractive powers lest 
her husband should incline to stray. 

A man does not age as quickly as a 
woman. At fifty a woman is supposed 
to be on her decline while a man is in 
his prime at fifty. 

It is a woman's own fault if, at forty 
the lines in her face turn down and if 
her hair and teeth are all gone. If she 
is a * 4 nagger" the reflection will ap- 
pear in her face. If she has permitted 
household cares to swamp her, and re- 
flect themselves in her face and body, 
she has no one to blame but herself. 

Many a woman has attracted her 



THE COLORED GIRL BEAUTIFUL 177 

husband through her singing, conversa- 
tion, or other accomplishments and 
after marriage has permitted these to 
decline, and has not lived up to the 
ideal that she gave him before mar- 
riage. 

A wife should ask herself if she is 
living up to the ideal she suggested 
before she married, or if she is a dis- 
appointment, before she questions her 
husband's conduct. 

Some wives think that their morality 
in wifehood is all sufficient. A woman 
may boast of her "virtue" until doom's 
day, but "if her soul is small and her 
heart stingy" her example is not worthy 
of imitation — for she is only good to 
herself. She has no way of proving the 
ownership of the "virtue of virtues." 
It takes many virtues to make one 
"good," in the real sense of the word. 

A colored wife should not be discon- 
tented without good cause nor should 
she complain of monotony when she 
may choose so many helpful diversions, 



178 THE COLORED GIRL BEAUTIFUL 

and may help to make others happy. 

Every colored wife who has not 
borne children, or a wife who has lost 
children owes a duty to the children 
of others. 

In fact, these owe a greater debt 
to posterity then the mother. Such 
women should not live for themselves 
alone, lest they canker. Contact with 
youth infuses youthful thoughts and 
enthusiasm, and keeps a woman's heart 
young, and if her heart is young her 
face will reflect this mental attitude. 

There are thousands of children 
with living mothers who still need 
"•mothering." One may work out her 
own youth and beauty culture while 
"mothering" a little one. It is worth 
a trial as a youth stimulant. 

There are four great laws given to 
a wife: 

"Brace up! Brush up! Clean up! 
Look up!" 



The Colored Mother Beautiful. 



When a woman enters into the mar- 
riage contract — into the partnership 
of home making — it is understood that 
parenthood is to be the chief aim and 
hope. 

If a man is good enough to marry 
and to contribute his support, he is 
good enough to be a father or else he 
should not have been selected. 

A woman who marries and does not 
intend to have children is merely an 
object of convenience who has sold 
herself. 

To assume the position of colored 
motherhood is the greatest privilege 
and responsibility that can come to 
any woman in this age. 

The colored mother beautiful carries 
a heavy burden — the weight of future 
generations of a handicapped, perse- 
cuted people. She may bless or curse 
181 



182 THE COLORED GIRL BEAUTIFUL 

each succeeding generation; she may 
change race history; she may make a 
more beautiful race with the beauty 
that comes from beauty of character 
and right living. 

What a privilege to carve the destiny 
of a race! How glorious to look into 
the future and see lines of ancestry in- 
fluenced and advanced by her thought 
and example, to see her stamp of per- 
sonality upon a posterity which will 
point to her in pride and thankfulness! 

The time has come when each col- 
ored girl must prepare herself for this 
rare privilege, when she must distribute, 
her powers and talents for race good. 

Whatever the colored mother is, mil- 
lions of colored children will be. A col- 
ored mother lives not only for herself 
and for her own children, but she must 
live for the race. A colored mother is 
a success as she measures up to her 
relation and obligation to the race. 

Negro children of all children need 
mothers who are strong spiritually, 



THE COLORED GIRL BEAUTIFUL 183 

physically, and intellectually. Enough 
colored children have been born under 
bad or careless conditions. The child 
born under bad conditions can not be 
expected to hold his own among other 
children. 

No woman has a right to blight the 
future of her race. Not even her body 
may be abused — this beautiful casket — 
the treasure house of future souls. Any 
crime that she commits against herself 
or her body she commits against the 
race. 

Almost any colored mother would 
lay down her life for her children but 
she must have a wider vision into the 
scheme of life and the world, and must 
deliberately plan to make her grand- 
children and great grand-children 
healthier, happier and more useful. 

While it is admitted that heredity is 
not all, yet inherited tendencies have 
great influence. 

The colored mother beautiful must 
be a living example of all that is pro- 



184 THE COLORED GIRL BEAUTIFUL 

gressive. She must study more about 
the laws of heredity, and child cul- 
ture to prepare the child for its race 
battle, unhampered by inherited men- 
tal or physical tendencies. 

The "gray matter" in the colored 
woman's head is the same as the gray 
matter in any woman's head. Through 
the exercise of will power she may con- 
quer inherited tendencies and even com- 
mand nature as other women are do- 
ing. 

There are many books which will 
guide and instruct a prospective mother 
who should read and learn all she can 
on the laws of reproduction. She 
should absorb this knowledge that she 
may be able to impart it to less in- 
formed women. 

The early Romans are said to have 
surrounded a prospective mother with 
examples of courage and strength. 

The mother of Napoleon is an ex- 
ample of the power of pre-natal direc- 
tion. She is said to have studied mili- 



THE COLORED GIRL BEAUTIFUL 185 

tary tactics and to have visited battle- 
fields. The mother of Michael Angelo 
is said to have watched the painters 
of pictures in the Cathedral. The re- 
sult was the greatest artist of the time. 

As mental impressions are as active 
during the night as in the day, no pros- 
pective mother should carry unpleasant 
thoughts to bed. The sub-conscious 
mind receives the bad thought at bed 
time and acts all night under this in- 
fluence. Its forces affect the same as 
thoughts during the day. 

The prospective mother should read 
good books, think right, live right, and 
keep a pure mind and heart, thus de- 
veloping a deeper nature to bequeath. 

More than anything else, the pros- 
pective colored mother must practice 
self-control. All worry is poisonous. 
Strong thoughts of disgust and hatred 
if not controlled during the pre-natal 
period are liable to leave disastrous 
affects. The aim should be to train 



186 THE COLORED GIRL BEAUTIFUL 



herself to change any thought which 
will create a physical disturbance. 

Mothers who fail to control their 
tempers, passions, and indulgences too 
often weep bitter tears as they see in 
their off-spring the consequences of 
their own wrong doing. 

Someone has said: "Parents trans- 
mit deviltry to children and then pun- 
ish them for it." Instance after in- 
stance of such cruelty could be cited. 
Why should parents expect their chil- 
dren to be better than they?" 

Anger causes a chemical change 
which acts like poison to the system of 
an adult. It affects the heart, stomach, 
blood, and nerves and causes many 
other disturbances. 

"Often the unborn child's little or- 
ganism is flooded with shocks of pas- 
sion and disturbed by nervous move- 
ments which cause unsound mind and 
body." 

Altho inheritance comes from two 
lines of ancestry, the prospective 



THE COLORED GIRL BEAUTIFUL 187 

mother may be able to control and 
supervise the tendencies from her line. 
She must do all in her power before the 
birth of a child to sway it for good. 
She may then save herself years of 
worry and sorrow and the race an un- 
worthy example. 

Before and after birth the colored 
mother beautiful will cultivate and give 
out the best in her. No contrary or 
selfish thought w T ill be permitted be- 
cause of the bad effect upon the child. 
These unpleasant things will enter soon 
enough into its life. The mother will 
faithfully endeavor to be an example 
to her children in thought, poise, 
speech, personal appearance and in all 
forms of cleanliness and politeness. 

A child's ideal seldom goes higher 
that that of its mother. Children very 
accurately reflect the thought of their 
parents. 

How can the child have high ideals 
and elevating thoughts unless the 
mother has them? 



188 THE COLORED GIRL BEAUTIFUL 

Taste is said to be a faculty of the 
soul. The mother bequeaths her taste. 

How can the colored mother beau- 
tiful expect her children to have habits 
of observation and appreciation of the 
beautiful in Nature, Art, Science, Music 
and Literature, unless the mother has 
"walked and talked with nature, has 
heard the tongues in trees and brooks" 
as Shakespeare has said, and has point- 
ed these out to the child? 

If the starlight, the moonlight, the 
dawn, the sunrise, the sunset, the blue 
sky, the tranquility of a summer day or 
the grandeur of a storm have no re- 
sponse in the mother's soul, then how 
can a child be expected to lift its eyes 
and see the beautiful everywhere, every 
day and absorb the benefits from such 
communion? 

The physical feeding of a child oc- 
curs but three times a day but the 
spiritual, mental and moral feeding 
goes on all the rest of the time. Children 
should be fed ideals of thought and 



THE COLORED GIRL BEAUTIFUL 189 

affection to counteract the evil effect of 
thoughts of passion. 

The colored child should be taught to 
think and should be given opportunity 
for a quiet hour for self communion 
and self entertainment. It should be 
taught to live a period of solitude so 
that in after life it may not always be 
compelled to hunt around for enter- 
tainment and excitement. 

How can the child be expected to 
love reading if the mother does not 
read to it? 

How can the child love music if the 
mother does not play or sing to it or 
teach it songs? 

How many nights are wasted that 
might be spent in giving colored chil- 
dren ideals of home life and right 
habits in reading and home study? 

Colored children have been left alone 
too much. 

How many of them have a children's 
hour? How many have been given 
something to think about? How many 



190 THE COLORED GIRL BEAUTIFUL 

spend their spare moments in reading? 
How many can recite poems or give 
quotations from the master writers? 

The mothers themselves must put 
some time in exerting their minds in 
reading and thinking with a view to- 
wards mentally improving the next 
generation. They must observe and 
note what is passing on in the great 
world. History is being made every 
day. How can the child resist the de- 
sires of the lower nature when its 
mother has tantrums? The colored 
mother must refuse to express passion. 
A mother can not shame or beat her 
child into gentle manners when she is 
rough or coarse. 

How can the child be careful and 
controlled in speech if the mother has 
not the power of expressing herself in 
good English. Language is too power- 
ful a weapon in reaching, compelling 
and swaying the feelings of others and 
in winning friends — to be neglected. 

Children always betray home train- 



THE COLORED GIRL BEAUTIFUL lfl 

ing. If they have not been trained 
properly as they are not adepts in dis- 
sembling- and they reflect their mothers 
in all their thought, speech and actions. 

The mother who is strict in her own 
conduct and who pays careful atten- 
tion to the home conduct of her chil- 
dren will seldom be ashamed of their 
deportment. Good habits may not be 
assumed at a moment's notice. The 
good breeding of parents is very truly 
reflected in the manners of their chil- 
dren. 

It is sad to have the children learn 
the laws of politeness and good breed- 
ing outside the home, and to watch 
them assume that which should be in- 
nate. 

It is sad to hear little children lie 
about their home training pretending 
that "My mother makes me do this or 
that" when they know that the mother 
has failed to make a strong point of 
this particular fault. 

It is sadder still to hear colored chil- 



192 THE COLORED GIRL BEAUTIFUL 

dren say, "I can't." The colored 
mother should put success in the child's 
thought and teach it to believe in him- 
self and his race. It is the duty of 
every mother to preach success and 
one's duty to aim to excel along all 
lines. 

How can the child be clean and love 
cleanliness when its mother is habit- 
ually untidy and slovenly? The col- 
ored mother beautiful would no more 
exhibit herself unclean than naked. She 
would no more walk slovenly than to 
dress slovenly. If a mother wears un- 
clean clothes, has unclean thoughts or 
unclean manners, her children will re- 
flect her. 

How can a child hold her head up 
and her back straight when her mother 
slouches around and forgets that her 
body belongs to God as well as her 
soul. 

The colored mother beautiful makes 
a point of teaching her child to be true 
and helpful to the race, and to speak up 



THE COLORED GIRL BEAUTIFUL 1^3 

for the good points and keep silent 
about the weaknesses when before 
other races. Every race has strong and 
weak points. 

She should take part in efforts for the 
advancement of the race. No one can 
lift the race unless he stays in it. A 
child should be taught not to depreciate 
the race any more than it would itself. 

No one is so big and strong that he 
can exist alone. All of us are depend- 
ent to a degree. Each one will need 
friends. There are no friends which 
mean so much to us as those of our 
own race. 

The percentage of physical deform- 
ities in colored children is lessening. 
Colored mothers are learning to study 
children's faces and bodies in order to 
change and correct their physical de- 
fects. Bowed and weak legs, out- 
standing ears, misshapen mouths, noses 
and teeth are being corrected accord- 
ing to scientific rules. Then, too, they 
are training children to do things to 



194 THE COLORED GIRL BEAUTIFUL 

improve their own physical defects 
without — of course — causing them to 
be over conscious. 

The colored mother beautiful is the 
health officer of the race as well as her 
own posterity. It is her duty to see to 
it that her children have clean bodies 
inside and outside. She will see to it 
that in her neighborhood there will be 
more regard for health, drainage, and 
other sanitary conditions. She will 
pursue the deadly fly and cause this 
pest and all vermin to be eradicated. 

She will study up on the kinds and 
amounts of food to give children that 
they may not be fed the coarse, greasy 
food which coarsens the instinct, or 
may make them gluttonous, which will 
abuse the stomach and cause unnatural 
heat that may wreck them morally. In- 
stead, she advocates the light brain 
forming food to lift them , above the 
dominant animal tendencies. 

She controls the child's play which 
is so necessary to health and which at 



THE COLORED GIRL BEAUTIFUL 195 

the present day aims for educational 
results. 

A colored girl's estimate and idea 
of colored womanhood comes from her 
mother. 

The colored mother beautiful will 
not give the best to strangers in pref- 
erence to home folks, nor will she ex- 
pect her daughter to receive politeness 
from other boys and men when her 
brothers and men in the house keep 
their hats on, smoke and talk in loud 
disrespectful tones before her. 

A colored mother will teach her 
daughter to command respect from all 
boys and men and not to capitulate in 
any way. To do this she will teach 
her daughter that she must conquer or 
control her lower nature and not per- 
mit privileges with her body or her 
given name. Her conduct at home and 
on the street must also command this. 
Her daughter will no more use the 
Lord's name in exclamation than any 
other profanity. She must be taught 



196 THE COLORED GIRL BEAUTIFUL 

not to hang- out or talk outside of the 
windows. 

She must be taught that she is never 
to stand and talk to men on the street, 
also that she must not continue a con- 
versation with a man or boy who 
shows he has no respect for her. She 
will demand a respectful attitude if 
she is a good girl or else she should 
excuse herself from further conversa- 
tion and association. 

The daughter of the colored woman 
beautiful will be taught to expect boys 
and men to tip their hats in meeting 
and parting, and she will not en- 
courage them to sit in her presence if 
she stands unless they are her elders, 
superiors, or invalids. If necessary she 
will exaggerate the importance of these 
seemingly small courtesies to impress 
them upon other younger and less 
thoughtful girls. 

Such a daughter will be taught to 
count for something besides clothes and 
looks. She will pass an intemperate or 



THE COLORED GIRL BEAUTIFUL 197 

immoral man as she would something 
polluted, for both are irresponsible and 
she may suffer from even a moment's 
contact. 

This daughter must be taught not 
to marry for support or for money. 
That is selfish and cowardly. Love 
should be the basis of marriage because 
after the honeymoon is past there are 
responsibilities, troubles, sorrows and 
self-sacrifice which need the stimula- 
tion of the "Love light." 

The daughter of the colored woman 
beautiful will aim to marry a man 
mentally and physically fit to be the 
father of her children. An immoral, 
vile-tongued, untruthful or diseased 
father is a curse to his race. It is her 
duty and aim to improve racial stock. 

This daughter will study the ethics 
of the period of engagement and will 
not abuse or destroy the mysterious 
charm which belongs alone to the early 
period of wife-hood. 

A girl should be taught the duties of 



198 THE COLORED GIRL BEAUTIFUL 

married life; to fulfil the beautiful aim 
of motherhood should be her ambition 
and her daily prayer. 

Boys, also, get their estimate of col- 
ored womanhood from their mothers. 

A whipping, striking, scolding, 
threatening, "shut-up" mother presents 
him a wrong view point of real mother- 
hood. 

The colored mother beautiful will 
teach her son to respect colored 
womanhood and to show this respect 
in every word and action. He is not 
supposed to know the "wheat from the 
tare." To any woman in all the small 
courtesies of life he will reflect his 
mother's home training. He will be 
taught to look up to, and to show spe- 
cial respect and reverence for the great 
women and men of the race. 

Even in the way he puts on or takes 
off his hat he reflects his mother. 

If a colored boy is expected to tip 
his hat to any woman, he should tip it 
to the women of his mother's race. 



THE COLORED GIRL BEAUTIFUL 199 

If it is expected that he should stand 
erect before any woman, he should be- 
fore the women of his mother's race. 
Off will go his hat, if even asked a 
question. His voice, his eyes, his 
backbone, his heels, all reflect his 
mother and her training. In spite of 
protest he will never sit if a woman 
is standing unless he is ill or a cripple. 
Especially does he exhibit the mother 
training he has received from his man- 
ner in his actions to colored women. 
If he is expected to speak respect- 
fully to any woman he should to the 
women of his mother's race. 

If he works faithfully for any woman 
who employs him he should work faith- 
fully for a woman of his mothers race. 
When he marries he should select a 
woman of his mother's race — a Colored 
Woman. His mother will teach him 
that a good wife is about the best thing 
in the world. 

He will be taught to support and 
trust his wife as he did his mother and 



200 THE COLORED GIRL BEAUTIFUL 

never doubt her until he has positive 
proof that she is unworthy. He will 
never publicly put another woman be- 
fore his wife if he lives with her. As 
long as a wife bears his name and stays 
under his roof she is entitled to the re- 
spect that her title is supposed to carry. 
He would never go about complaining 
of his wife for that is small and cow- 
ardly. He will tip his hat as gallantly 
to his wife as to another woman and 
kiss her with uncovered head to show 
his respect to the woman he has 
chosen to bear his name. 

The son of the colored mother beau- 
tiful will not smoke in the presence 
of his wife or friends unless he is sure 
it is unobjectionable and he should re- 
gard this as a privilege rather than a 
masculine right. He will be taught to 
wear his coat at table and regard it al- 
so as a privilege if he appears other- 
wise. He will be taught that it is un- 
manly to tattle and gossip. 

He will be taught that it is vulgar 



THE COLORED GIRL BEAUTIFUL 201 

and low to quarrel especially in the 
home. No man will strike a woman no 
matter what the provocation might be 
any more than it would have been right 
for his father to strike his mother. A 
man who is unable to control himself 
in anger is a weak man and is hardly 
fit to be a husband, much less father. 
Belonging to a race full of impulse and 
emotion he must be taught to control 
his emotions as he would his appetite. 
Culture and manliness are really re- 
straint. 

He will be taught to remember the 
vital sex difference in strength and 
physique and will not permit a woman 
to lift or reach unnecessarily — not even 
to help with his coat. He will not 
preach a double standard of morality 
for the men and women unless he prac- 
tices what he preaches and has always 
been pure. 

Early in the boy's life the colored 
mother beautiful will teach him to keep 
as pure in thought and deed as girls 



202 THE COLORED GIRL BEAUTIFUL, 

are expected to be. He vull be given 
a right idea of the sacred sex organs 
and will be taught their health — 
value and the price of their abuse. 
Self mastery will be the watchword in 
thought, even in sleep and recreation. 

The colored mother beautiful will 
teach her son not to lie and steal or 
to use intoxicants and profane lan- 
guage. She will teach him to keep both 
his inward and outward body clean. 
She shall insist that he keep his lips 
"in" while his chest will be out. The 
son will be taught the value of a good 
name and that fondness for work is 
one of the best recommendations in the 
world. He will be taught not to scorn 
or neglect his chores and to help his 
mother in the housework, not only be- 
cause it is his duty but because it will 
prepare him for the duties of married 
life when he may be able to help his 
wife or instruct her if it should be nec- 
essary. 

The colored mother beautiful will 



THE COLORED GIRL BEAUTIFUL 203 

teach her son to be a little man and 
not to receive "penny tips'" like a beg- 
gar. He should be taught to do neigh- 
borly favors without pay, after first 
asking his mother for permission. If 
he must have money let him work for 
wages that he may be his own busi- 
ness boss. He should never be per- 
mitted to ask any one but his parents 
for pennies and he should be en- 
couraged not to expect or accept them. 

A boy should be expected to walk 
with a graceful carriage and present 
an attractive personal appearance in 
the way of clothes, teeth, hair and nails 
as well as a girl. 

Early in life he should be taught to 
invest in a savings bank, to get the 
saving habit. 

The habit of reading good books 
should be made a part of his daily work 
as a preparation for the idle hour when 
he would otherwise seek excitement 
and harmful association. 

A boy should be taught the duties of 



204 THE COLORED GIRL BEAUTIFUL 

married life and what to expect from 
a good wife. 

He should be warned of pitfalls and 
how vicious girls and women play upon 
men's physical weaknesses for selfish 
purposes. Any abuse or excess may 
ruin his health and happiness. 

He should be taught to appreciate 
the qualities in a girl which will make 
congeniality during the long married 
life which has trials of which courtship 
never dreams. 

He should be taught to seek and ap- 
preciate good, respectable girls and to 
associate with the best people. 

If the day should come to the colored 
Mother Beautiful when after years of 
patient sacrifice and toil, all her hopes 
and dreams are cruelly dashed to earth 
and the child so carefully nurtured re- 
fuses to do her duty to parent and race 
and will not help to make the race and 
world better by having lived in it, or, 
when perhaps, the child is a disgrace to 
her parents and the race, the mother 



THE COLORED GIRL BEAUTIFUL 205 

must conceal her agony and grief and 
still keep a serene countenance. 

In silent meditation she looks back 
over all the years in which she has tried 
to rear a creditable member of the race 
and society. If, after honest review, 
down in her heart she can truthfully say, 
"I have raised my child to the best of my 
knowledge/' then she may leave the rest 
in the hands of the "Creator." Perhaps 
he will reward her efforts, in a future 
generation, while she is yet on earth. 

A disappointed colored Mother Beau- 
tiful does not envy other Mothers nor 
does she criticise their daughters. 

Suffering opens the door to a wider 
vision in life and if she looks around she 
will find forgetfulness in helping others. 
It is never too late to begin. 

Perhaps the Colored Mother Beautiful 
will be spared to see the day when her 
children leave the home honorably. Al- 
though it almost breaks her heart be- 
cause she is no more to be the guiding 
light and comforter, she yields the seep- 



206 THE COLORED GIRL BEAUTIFUL 

tre of authority gracefully and willingly 
and steps into the background. She may 
♦see a rough voyage ahead for the young 
life travelers, but she may not interfere 
nor advise these loved ones unless asked. 
Even then she remembers that expe- 
rience is the greatest teacher and 
strengthener and that it is best for them 
to walk life's journey alone. 

The peace and contentment that 
comes from having done her whole duty 
gives her a spiritual beauty of counte- 
nance that comes from the other world; 
the habit of right living through right 
thought, reflects in her face and gives 
her a physical beauty that comes in no 
other way. 

At the last, the Still Small Voice 
Whispers, "Well done, thou good and 
faithful servant of a persecuted race. 
You have done what you could. No one 
can do more. Receive your eternal re- 
ward," and the face is illumined with the 
beauty that shall endure forever. 



